THE STRATEGY by the prosecution team of making Article 4 or grave threats as the first case to be tackled by the Senate impeachment trial was based on it being “more digestible” to the public than the hundreds of millions of pesos in the unexplained wealth or confidential funds issues of the other articles.
This was the view raised by Atty. Paolo Tamase, associate dean of the UP College of Law, in an interview this morning over DZMM as he said that the prosecution team succeeded in presenting the evidence in court records. The numerous objections by the defense is part of its job.
On the first witness, Senior Agent John Mark Calilung of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Cybercrime Division, was able to show that the videos and manuscripts he presented were all unadulterated.
He is one of 90 people to present testimonies in the impeachment trial. But Tamase noted that the first day of presenting evidence and witness to Article 4 of the impeachment issues already caused some senator judges to comment or make their manifestations, an indication that the impeachment trial is really unique from the regular courts as political debates have been raised.
“If we all thought that the presentation of videos and manuscript evidence was a simple exercise, we discovered that it was more complex,” he noted.
At the cross examination by the defense panel today of Caliung we would see for ourselves just how credible and firm he is about the authenticity of the evidence he presented and this would also be manifested by the debate between the defense and prosecution lawyers after the cross examination, Tamase stressed.
Tamase said Calilung as a witness will be tested during today’s cross examination.
On the handling by presiding officer, Sen. Chiz Escudero, has shown fairness by allowing both the defense and prosecution counselors to air their views and later rendering the court chair’s ruling and he also did the same with the differing views aired by the senator judges, Tamase said.
“Nakakatuwa. He was like a judge in a regular court,” Tamase said of Escudero.