It will be all about formalities during the first day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s Senate impeachment trial on Monday, July 6.

Thus, said House prosecutor Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua, even as he clarified that no witnesses would be presented on the first day of the high-stakes proceedings.

Speaking in a podcast, Chua shared that the impeachment court was expected to first focus on resolving motions and delivering opening statements, with evidence presentations to begin likely on the second day of proceedings.

“Unang una, ineexpect natin ‘yung mga motion namin magkaroon ng ruling. Tapos at least ‘yung presiding officer malaman na rin natin kung sino talaga, ma-settle na natin. Tapos magkakaroon ng opening statement from both sides," said the lawyer-legislator.

(First, we expect rulings on our motions. Then at least we will know who the presiding officer is and settle that. After that, there will be opening statements from both sides.)

"Wala pang presentation ng mga witness, formalities muna. So sa second day, doon pa lang magsisimula,” Chua said.

(There will be no witness presentations yet, only formalities. So it will start on the second day.)

During the five-day pre-trial conference, the 11-member House prosecution panel filed multiple motions on procedural and evidentiary issues. The most contentious involve whether or not both public and private prosecutors may participate in proceedings, and whether or not a sealed Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) box containing Duterte and her husband’s tax records should be opened.

According to Chua, the Vice President’s defense team pushed back against the prosecution’s bid to have both public and private prosecutors participate.

“Isa ‘yan as motion namin, to allow one public and one private [prosecutor]. Pero ayaw nila, inoobjectan nila ngayon. Gusto nila as much as possible public lang, syempre lamang sila doon,” Chua said of the defense position.

(One of our motions is to allow one public and one private prosecutor. But they object, insisting on public only, which of course favors them.)

The Manila solon notes that in impeachment cases, such access has historically been permitted.

On the sealed BIR box, however, the defense has shown flexibility, agreeing to its opening on the condition that it be done behind closed doors during an executive session.

“Pagdating naman sa trial mismo, pwede naman nila objectan kung sa tingin nila hindi [dapat buksan]. Although sa kanilang comment naman, agree naman na sila na pabuksan ‘yung box. Kaya lang may subject to certain conditions. Kailangan during executive session,” Chua said.

(As for the trial itself, they can object if they think it should not be opened. Although in their comment, they agreed to open the box, but subject to certain conditions, requiring it to be during executive session.)

An executive session is essentially a closed-door session.

The clerk of court was unable to decide on these motions during the pre-trial conference since he only served as receiver during the marking of evidence, Chua said. So, for the prosecution team, such motions should be addressed before the presentation of evidence and witnesses.

“Well in fairness to the clerk of court, hindi naman siya talaga pupwedeng magdecide. Receiver lang siya (he really couldn't decide on it. He is only meant to be a receiver),” Chua noted.

The prosecution has deferred final comment on the unsealing of the BIR box, preferring to wait for the impeachment court’s ruling.

Apart from these, the prosecution also moved to allow both English and Filipino during the trial, especially during witness cross-examinations. Chua explained that standard practice requires English unless Tagalog is explicitly requested, with interpreters available as needed.

“So ‘yan ang ilan sa mga sinubmit natin, plus ‘yung use of Filipino tsaka ng English (These are some of what we submitted, plus the use of Filipino and English)," he said.

The prosecution sought to formalize the use of Filipino “para mas maintindihan ng mga kababayan (so that our countrymen could under the proceedings better)".