CROSS-EXAMINATION On Day 3 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, the defense team grills prosecution witness John Mark Calilung of the National Bureau of Investigation. Lawyer Carlo Narvasa did the questioning (left) while cocounsel Mark Vinluan presented some main arguments. —Photo by Niño Jesus Orbeta
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team on Wednesday sought to dismantle the testimony of the prosecution’s first witness in her impeachment trial, arguing that the charge arising from the “threats” she made in 2024 against President Marcos, his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez “are not ‘other high crimes’ contemplated by the Constitution as grounds for impeachment.”
On the third day of the trial before the Senate impeachment court, defense lawyers focused their cross-examination on National Bureau of Investigation senior agent John Mark Calilung, questioning the basis of the bureau’s investigation and pointing to what they described as major gaps in the evidence linking Duterte to an alleged assassination plot.
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Defense counsel Mark Vinluan argued that House prosecutors failed to present evidence that Duterte had hired an assassin to kill the Marcos couple and Romualdez.FEATURED STORIES
