00:01On the third day of VP Sara Duterte's impeachment trial,
00:05Defense Counsel Mark Vinluan calls the alleged grave threats
00:08uttered by the second-highest official of the land
00:10unconventional but justified.
00:12Impeachment trial day three begins with Defense Lawyer Carlo Narvaza,
00:16cross-examining witness, and BI agent John Mark Calilong.
00:20Senator Irwin Tulfo files a criminal complaint against
00:23former Congressman Mike Defensor, lawyer Levy Baligod,
00:26and former bodyguards of resigned lawmakers Zaldi Co.
00:28over allegations he is involved in the flood control mess.
00:31President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appoints trusted ally Ben-Hur Avalos as Cabinet Secretary.
00:37And the unemployment rate in the Philippines rises slightly to 4.8% in May 2026,
00:43equivalent to 2.5 million unemployed Filipinos.
00:54In his closing statement for the third day of Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment,
00:58defense counsel Mark Vinluan calls the alleged grave threats uttered by the second-highest official of the land
01:04unconventional but justified.
01:06Rather, when VP Sara left the administration,
01:10she suffered various forms of threats and harassment for many months
01:15from the powers that be,
01:17And the culmination was her statement on that fateful early morning in November 2024.
01:24Rappler Managing Editor Miriam Grace Goh disputes this framing in a Rappler panel.
01:29I want to remind our viewers that yesterday,
01:33one of the clearest messages that the prosecution was able to establish is that
01:38When Sara had that, what social media users and observers would call meltdown on video,
01:47parang dun mo na question bigla yung fitness niya for the Vice Presidency.
01:54In the same panel, law professor Maria Lulu Reyes also calls the defense's cross-examination
01:59of witness NBI agent John Mark Calilong full of facepalm moments.
02:04The purpose of a cross-examination is really first to impeach a witness,
02:11whether or not the witness was lying, is biased, etc.
02:17Second purpose of cross-examination is, of course,
02:21to elicit admissions that are supportive of your defense or of your case.
02:30And third, of course, is to provoke admissions contrary to the interest of the witness
02:37and helpful to your case.
02:40None of that happened today.
02:42During the trial, Senator Judge Alan Peter Cayetano questions
02:45whether Duterte's remarks were considered a conditional threat.
02:49Reyes says the articles of impeachment should not be confused
02:52with the criminal allegation of grave threat.
02:54The crime, grave threat, is measured by the actual utterance made
03:00and whether or not the person has the capacity to carry out that threat.
03:06Whether it's conditional or not, the elements of the crime remain.
03:13The third day of Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial begins
03:17with defense lawyer Carlo Narvaza cross-examining witness NBI agent John Mark Calilong.
03:22Narvaza makes a motion to play excerpts of the two-hour press conference
03:26of Zulayka Lopez, the Vice President's Chief of Staff.
03:30Apologics.
03:30And then, ang sabi po nila, I just have to do an MR.
03:35Okay, they did an MR, but they did not rule on it.
03:38And then suddenly, they have an order transferring me.
03:42When, when, ang nauna naman na order na kinayon ng lawyers namin
03:47was an MR to lift that order of contempt.
03:49Because, as they said, that was the procedure.
03:52If they were not able to rule on that, how were they able to come up with an order,
03:57you know, to transfer me to the women's correctional in the dead of the night?
04:03I mean, bakit ganun?
04:05Wala na bang rights yung mga tao?
04:06Why, you just keep your room and then just get...
04:11Narvaza attempts to portray the NBI as being under the thumb of Duterte's political rival,
04:16President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,
04:17and questions the alleged inconsistencies in the witness's affidavit of transcription.
04:22Prosecution lawyer Amando Ligutan objects to the defense's line of questioning
04:26and argues that the defense is confronting the witness on minuscule differences
04:30between the transcript and the video.
04:32How can it be relevant?
04:34How can it be relevant assuming but not conceding
04:37that these two minuscule words, detainee and accused,
04:41are not reflected in the transcript
04:44when in fact this witness said he investigated
04:46not only on the basis of the transcript
04:49but on the basis of the video that he himself viewed.
04:52In his recap after the hearing,
04:54Rappler's Jairo Boliedo points out
04:55the defense's main objective today was to, quote,
04:58humanize the vice president.
05:00It's all to establish that what triggered Duterte
05:02was the persecution of her chief of staff
05:04and threats posed to her family by the alleged plot Oplan Romanov.
05:08Vice President Sara Duterte's defense team
05:10basically took the entire afternoon to humanize her
05:14to pakita ng tao lang din siya nasasaktan
05:18as a defense doon sa kanyang alleged threats
05:21dito kay President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
05:24at sa kanyang pamilya.
05:26Unfortunately, it took the entire afternoon
05:29for the defense to prove that point.
05:31Meantime, the prosecution says it will present a witness
05:34who will testify on the alleged hitman
05:36mentioned in Duterte's statements.
05:38The prosecution also asks the impeachment court
05:40to compel Lopez to attend the trial next week.
05:45Senator Irwin Tulfo files a criminal complaint
05:48against former Congressman Mike Defensor,
05:50lawyer Levi Baligod,
05:51and former bodyguards of resigned lawmaker Zaldi Co.
05:54This over allegations that he is involved
05:56in the flood control mess.
05:58Tulfo says in his statement,
06:00the respondents made defamatory statements
06:01against him in public.
06:02He adds,
06:03allegations streamed on social media
06:05subjected him to,
06:06quote,
06:06unnecessary public contempt,
06:08ridicule,
06:08and disrepute.
06:10In June,
06:10Tulfo filed an oral defamation complaint
06:12against three of Co's former bodyguards
06:14for claiming he received flood control project kickbacks
06:16and was involved in sex trafficking.
06:18This time,
06:19the complaint includes two more former security aides,
06:22Geron Valderrama and Bernard Gumban.
06:24The former bodyguards made the allegation
06:26during a supposed Blue Ribbon hearing
06:28led by Senator Pia Cayetano on June 4,
06:31later dubbed by Senate President
06:32Sherwin Gatchalian's majority as bogus.
06:35Senator Irwin Tulfo has chaired
06:36the Blue Ribbon Committee since June 3.
06:40President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
06:42picks his former Interior Secretary,
06:44Ben-Hur Avalos,
06:45as Cabinet Secretary.
06:46The announcement comes months
06:48after the one-year appointment
06:49ban on defeated 2025 candidates lapsed.
06:52Talas Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro
06:54says Wednesday, July 8,
06:56Avalos' role is to assist Marcos
06:58by, quote,
06:59providing timely, relevant,
07:00and strategic advice
07:01on emerging national,
07:02local, and international issues
07:04affecting the political landscape.
07:06Avalos is the first secretary
07:07of the Marcos Cabinet.
07:09The position was last held
07:10by Melvin Matibag
07:11under the Rodrigo Duterte administration
07:13and who now heads
07:14the National Bureau of Investigation.
07:17Avalos was Duterte's
07:18Metropolitan Manila
07:19Development Authority chairperson
07:20until he left his post in 2022
07:22to serve as Marcos' campaign manager.
07:24He was also Marcos' campaign manager
07:26for Metro Manila
07:27during the latter's
07:28failed vice presidential bid in 2016.
07:32The Philippine Statistics Authority reports
07:35the unemployment rate
07:36rose slightly to 4.8% in May 2026.
07:39This is equivalent to
07:402.5 million unemployed Filipinos.
07:43The latest rate is higher
07:44than the 2.41 million
07:46recorded in April 2026
07:48and the 2.03 million
07:49posted in May 2025.
07:52The May figure was nearly
07:53one percentage point higher
07:54than the 3.9% unemployment rate
07:57recorded in the same month last year.
07:59Asked whether the increase
08:00in unemployed Filipinos
08:02could be attributed
08:02to the Middle East fuel crisis,
08:04national statistician
08:05Dennis Mapa points instead
08:07to the large year-on-year drop
08:08in agriculture and forestry jobs.
08:11Agriculture and forestry
08:12shed 905,000 jobs year-on-year,
08:14the biggest net loss
08:15among industries.
08:17Much of this came from
08:17the growing of Palay
08:19which lost 734,000 jobs
08:21and the growing of corn
08:22which lost 428,000 jobs.
08:25Mapa notes it may be the impact
08:26of weather conditions in May.
08:30And that's today's wrap.
08:32I'm JC Gutinga.
08:34Click the link below
08:34for the full story.
08:35For more updates,
08:37download the Rappler app.
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