By Dino de Leon, human rights lawyer
The refusal of Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team to plainly declare that their client is innocent was the most telling moment of the first day of the impeachment trial.
Nung inaanalyze ko yung mensahe ng depensa, parang hindi ako sure kung ano yung depensa. Una, hindi sinabi ng depensa na inosente si Sara Duterte. Wala kahit na isang claim. Kasi ako bilang isang litigation lawyer, counsel ni Leila Delima noon, ang unang namin sinabi inosente kami.
(As a litigation lawyer, the very first thing you do when your client is truly innocent is tell the court that your client is innocent. When I served as counsel for Leila de Lima, that was our first message. We looked our accusers in the eye and declared that she was innocent. We never hid behind technicalities,” he said.)
The defense never said Sara Duterte is innocent. Not even once.
Instead, Duterte’s defense team devoted much of their opening arguments to procedural objections and technical issues rather than directly denying the allegations against the Vice President.
It appears that even the defense does not believe it can convince the public that Sara Duterte is innocent. Their strategy now seems to be relying on technicalities instead of answering the accusations with evidence.
If your client is innocent, say she is. Show the evidence to disprove and discredit the evidence preliminarily shown by the Prosecution. Explain it to the Filipino people. That is what the public wants to hear.
Hiding behind technicality could backfire because impeachment is different from an ordinary criminal case.
Para bang ayaw ipaliwanag yung mga akusasyon? Parang nagiging overly technical at nakikita ng mga ordinaryong tao yun. Again, hindi ito ordinaryong korte, hindi siya criminal case, hindi siya akusado. This is sui generis and hence yung behavior ng depensa na masyadong hostile and combative as if this were an ordinary adversarial proceeding, I will caution against that.
The defense should avoid becoming “overly technical and overly hostile,” stressing that the impeachment court is ultimately accountable to the Filipino people.
Duterte’s refusal to personally appear before the impeachment court deprives the public of hearing her directly respond to the charges.
The Filipino people deserved to hear her stand before the impeachment court and state her position. Instead, they heard lawyers arguing technicalities while remaining silent on the most basic question: Is Sara Duterte innocent?