Photo courtesy of Avito Dalan/PNA
The prosecution panel in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial on Wednesday raised concern over an edited video posted on Sen. Pia Cayetano’s social media account but said it would neither seek her inhibition nor formally bring the matter before the Senate impeachment court.
Prosecution lawyer Benjamin Tolosa Jr. said the video used selected portions of Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno’s statements during oral arguments on the panel’s request to subpoena Duterte’s bank and tax records.
Tolosa said the clip could mislead the public about the prosecution’s position and create an impression that some members of the impeachment court had already prejudged the case.
“This is concerning not only because the people may have a wrong impression regarding what really happened in the oral arguments and what was the prosecution’s stand through Cong. Chel Diokno,” Tolosa said at a press briefing.
He also pointed to a text overlay in the video suggesting that the prosecution had no evidence and was merely taking its chances.
Tolosa said the post could raise questions about impartiality and weaken public confidence in the Senate impeachment court.
He stressed, however, that the prosecution was not accusing Cayetano or any senator-judge of acting with ill intent.
“We don’t want to put any specific member of the impeachment court on the spot. We don’t want to call them out, and we don’t want to ascribe any negative intentions on the part of anyone,” he said.
Tolosa also said the panel would not ask Cayetano or any other senator-judge to voluntarily inhibit from the proceedings.
He said the post could have resulted from a clerical mistake or an error by the senator’s social media team, adding that the prosecution was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
The video, posted on July 24, showed an exchange between Diokno and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano during arguments over the prosecution’s request for Duterte’s bank records.
It began with Diokno saying the prosecution was “taking a chance that we may find evidence,” followed by Alan Cayetano asking what the panel expected to obtain from the documents.
Diokno later clarified that the quoted statement formed part of his explanation of what constitutes a fishing expedition, which he said the prosecution was not conducting.
He maintained that the records sought by the panel were specific and had been identified even before the impeachment trial began.
Diokno also cited Anti-Money Laundering Council records allegedly showing billions of pesos passing through accounts linked to Duterte and her spouse. He said the requested bank documents were needed to determine whether the transactions matched the AMLC reports.
Cayetano has since faced criticism over the post.
On Wednesday, women’s rights advocates, student leaders and civil society groups filed an ethics complaint against her before the Senate ethics committee.
The complainants asked the panel to investigate what they described as the deliberate circulation of a misleadingly edited video.
They said altering footage from official impeachment proceedings to shape public perception raised ethical concerns and could undermine the credibility of the Senate acting as an impeachment court.
