The House prosecution panel on Tuesday withdrew its plan to present Office of the Vice President Chief of Staff Zuleika Lopez and House security official Belinda Bello as witnesses in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan said the prosecution no longer considered their testimonies necessary after the defense relied on the same November 2024 virtual press conference video that prosecutors had intended to authenticate through Lopez.
Kapunan said the prosecution also took into account the documentary evidence presented by NBI officials John Mark Calilung and Jeremy Lotoc, as well as the questions raised by senator-judges during the proceedings.
She said Lopez had been expected to testify that she was present in the detention facility when Duterte made the alleged threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Kapunan added that Bello’s planned testimony would only have corroborated the issuance of a transfer order involving Lopez and was therefore no longer needed.
The defense welcomed the prosecution’s decision.
Defense lawyer Michael Poa said the move came as a surprise but stressed that the defense had no objection because it was within the prosecution’s discretion to determine which witnesses to present.
