MANILA, Philippines – To end three days of intense questioning and poring over documents, including those that bore names like Renan Piattos, Nova Santos, and Mico Harina, veteran lawyer Lorna Kapunan on Wednesday, August 5, put her foot down and offered her defense counterpart a compromise.
“Perhaps to restore a level of trust on the side of the defense.… Let’s use the defense’s documents. Then, they will not say we do not trust these documents because it’s their own defense documents,” said Kapunan, the private counsel for the prosecution.
With minutes left before the impeachment court was supposed to call it a day to make way for the Senate’s regular session, the prosecution and defense in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial were still arguing over the admission of documents.
Three days before, the two camps had a similar debate just before state auditor Roderick Wamil, formerly of the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (ICFAO), began his testimony.
“Maybe that will solve the problem of this court. Will you still question using your own documents? Will you still question the authenticity of your own documents?” added Kapunan, who led the direct examination of Wamil.
