Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team rejected the House prosecution panel’s request to use common markings for similar documents in the impeachment pretrial.
Defense spokesperson Michael Poa said Tuesday the camp wanted its own documents separately marked for use during the trial.
Poa said the defense was being careful because the same documents would form part of its presentation once the impeachment trial proceeds.
The issue was raised as both sides continued the marking of evidence during the third day of the pretrial conference.
House prosecution lead counsel and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said the prosecution had asked that common exhibits be marked once for both parties.
Luistro said several documents submitted by the prosecution were also included in the defense exhibits.
With the defense objecting, Luistro said the same documents would now have to be marked separately for the prosecution and the defense.
Poa maintained that the defense did not adopt the prosecution’s exhibits, noting that both sides submitted their pretrial briefs on the same day. He said both camps were still working to speed up the pre-marking process, although the proceedings could extend for another day due to the volume of documents.