00:00And this was posted at 11.29 a.m. by one of the private prosecutors, attorney Amanda Virgil Ligutan,
00:08posting that a principal or lawyers and law students know by heart misleading questions are not allowed even in cross
00:17-examination.
00:18Now, this was posted and picked up by Inquire.net at 11.29 a.m. today.
00:24And I surmise that this has something to do with the exchange between the private prosecutor, attorney Kapunan,
00:35and the defense counsel, attorney Ferrer, on the matter of the cross-examination question that attorney Ferrer asked the prosecution's
00:46witness.
00:46And I have here a transcript because I find it troubling that a private prosecutor would do this in the
00:56middle of a courtroom hearing.
00:59Because as far as I'm concerned, impeachment court is also a court of decorum.
01:06And the rules on impeachment under Rule 18 actually prohibits participants, especially lawyers, from commenting about the merits of the
01:16case.
01:16Now, one may argue that this isn't about the merits of the case, that he probably was just commenting about
01:22what ought or ought not to do in a cross-examination.
01:26But we, you know, we're not naive what the private prosecutor is talking about.
01:31He's here. He can explain it. He can explain himself if the presiding officer is so desirous.
01:37But I really just find it in bad taste to do this at this time.
01:42And I think it is inappropriate to do that to a fellow member of the bar.
01:46Because even as we sit on the opposing side of this hall, we remain to be both members of the
01:54bar.
01:55And as officers of the court, we owe each other respect, you know, politeness, or even kindness.
02:03And it doesn't take one to be a lawyer to know that the first thing that our parents teach us
02:10to do is humility.
02:12Okay.
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