House prosecutors maintained that Vice President Sara Duterte’s statements about allegedly arranging for a hitman to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his family if she were killed remain an impeachable offense, even without physical evidence of an assassination contract.
The House prosecution panel was responding to the defense team’s argument that the prosecution failed to establish the existence of a contract to assassinate the President, as cited under Article IV of the Articles of Impeachment.
House prosecutor Atty. Bel Zamora said the impeachment proceedings are not a criminal trial, stressing that the case centers on whether Duterte’s actions constitute a betrayal of public trust.
“We must remember that we are not prosecuting a criminal case here. Our position is that the actuations of the Vice President in relation to November 23, 2024 constitute betrayal of public trust,” Zamora said during a news conference.
She added that betrayal of public trust is a broad constitutional ground for impeachment and does not require proving the elements of a criminal offense under the Revised Penal Code.
“Contract or no contract, it is our position that her utterances made on November 23, 2024 constitute impeachable offenses, betrayal of public trust, high crimes, and culpable violation of the Constitution,” she said.
Meanwhile, House prosecution panel impeachment adviser and former Robert Ace Barbers dismissed the defense’s insistence on documentary proof, saying criminal conspiracies rarely leave a paper trail.
“I haven’t seen any criminal who has a physical contract. If indeed, the person is an assassin, probably, there’s no fine print there. No paper. Otherwise, if that assassin fails to meet the contract, are you going to file a case against that person for breach of contract?” Barbers said.
Barbers added that, based on his experience as a lawyer, he has never encountered a written agreement for hiring an assassin, reinforcing the prosecution’s position that the absence of a physical contract does not negate the alleged impeachable conduct.
