00:00This is an impeachment trial, and what is very important here is we follow the Constitution,
00:06we follow the rules of the impeachment court, and fairness.
00:11Having said that, because this is a political process as much as a legal process,
00:18we want the public to know as much as possible.
00:21We want to hold the impeachable officers accountable.
00:25So there are values here.
00:27The value of the right to know, what are the finances of the Vice President,
00:33did she launder money, did she steal money, did she not declare it right, etc.
00:42But this is not the wild, wild west.
00:45Just because we're curious or just because we want to hold someone accountable,
00:50that doesn't mean that we will not follow the rules.
00:54So this is the point where I asked the presiding officer about threading carefully upon sacred laws.
01:07For example, in the corona impeachment, it was against the Chief Justice,
01:14and we presumed he had the support of the Supreme Court.
01:18Yet when the Supreme Court ruled that we will not look into the dollar accounts
01:22because it is strictly confidential, we did not.
01:25But the Executive Director did not even pause when it came to dollar transactions
01:32and didn't even ask if the impeachment court would allow it.
01:38There is a provision in the anti-maid laundering law that we cannot use this law against political persecution.
01:47So where is the line?
01:49Where is the line between transparency, accountability, and when is there a strict interpretation of the law?
01:56So baseline, okay, when we had the corona trial, we did not have Duterte versus H.O.R. yet.
02:09So when we needed to know the baseline, we allowed documents, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Presiding Officer, 10 years?
02:18Corona impeachment, 10 years?
02:20If I'm not mistaken, yes, 10 years.
02:2110 years, okay.
02:2310 years.
02:26Now, when we discussed this, we also allowed baseline, precisely just to know when it was open, magkano yan, etc.
02:34But there was no legal arguments or there was no strict interpretation by this court yet
02:41whether all these financial reports can be looked into prior to when she was vice president,
02:49given the ruling of the Duterte versus H.O.R.
02:53So as to the job of the prosecutors to convince not only this court but the Filipino people that the
03:00vice president is unfit,
03:02I see that point.
03:04Mahirap na trabaho yan.
03:07Senator Migs, myself, Senator Escudero, were in many impeachment proceedings.
03:14Estrada, Corona, Arroyo.
03:21I wasn't in the Davide.
03:23I wasn't a participant there.
03:25But there was always a common denominator that we stop and we do not bend the law and we protect
03:35the Constitution and the law.
03:37Why?
03:37Because that is more important than holding one person accountable.
03:43But in this case, it's very clear from the very articulate lady prosecutor that anyway, they have the documents and
03:51they have the numbers in the present.
03:55So why should we argue about those numbers that were before that?
03:59I mean, it's up to the executive director if he wants to risk his career and his liberty and he
04:05wants to do a press con or they want to reveal it outside this impeachment court, okay.
04:11But you do it inside the impeachment court with all of us here when there is a ruling that prior
04:17to your term,
04:18the impeachment has to be in regard to your term and also in connection with your duties.
04:26That's the prevailing Supreme Court decision.
04:30If we do not agree with that, we challenge that decision.
04:33We don't just say here that that decision does not apply because it's quite clear.
04:39How many times do we have to violate the Constitution in this court when it's very, very clear?
04:45And what's surprising for me is that it seems that you have, I'm not looking or judging yet at the
04:53quality of your evidence,
04:55but it seems that you have so much.
04:57So can we not, Mr. Presiding Officer, focus on those elements or the amount and quality of evidence that the
05:08prosecution have,
05:09that there's no question, then argue later, para hindi rin tayo ma-interrupt o mabitin dito.
05:16Kasi kung hindi, ang daming law student nagtatanong na sa akin,
05:20Sir, but ganun, panay na lang continuing objection, but we can do anything in this impeachment court.
05:27So what happens when the COA finds something really, really bad, let's say, against a president or against senators or
05:36against congressmen,
05:39tapos in-impeach nila, they can just dig up and look at anything,
05:44then let's change our laws and change our rules na lang, para hindi, we're not violating the law.
05:50So the judges have to be able to render the judgment out of fairness based on law.
05:56So if we're not arguing on the facts now, Mr. President, we're not arguing on the evidence,
06:01we're arguing on the application of the law, kung anong pwede at anong bawal.
06:06So yun ang akin two cents, that one, can we tread carefully?
06:10Two, pagkaklaro naman na pwede at marami naman, can't we focus on that?
06:15And then to the witness, you're not an ordinary witness.
06:20And then to the witness, you're not going to report them on the outside,
06:26and finally there's theFi.
06:27We can put the
06:27one which means not to be able to put in-impeach nila, we've covered them or die again.
06:29You
