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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
July 8, 2026 | 6:27pm
MANILA, Philippines — Most of Wednesday's trial went to the Vice President Sara Duterte's defense panel's cross-examination of the prosecution's first witness, National Bureau of Investigation agent John Mark Calilung.
Calilung was the one who authenticated the video of Duterte's Nov. 23, 2024 press conference — the evidence underpinning Article IV, which prosecutors have called the most straightforward of the four charges against Duterte.
Much of the questioning was an examination of documents defense counsel Carlo Narvasa presented to the witness, leading to queries on chain-of-command that prompted the NBI investigation.
Presiding officer Chiz Escudero decided not to strike from record the prosecution's statement Tuesday in answering Sen. Risa Hontiveros' question on whether the remarks alone amounted to an impeachable offense. Prosecutor Amando Ligutan then delivered what some senators described as an "eloquent" though premature "closing statement" on why the panel thinks the video proves Duterte's intent to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his family.
Instead, Escudero gave the defense panel a similar turn at the microphone toward the end of the trial's third day.
Addressing the court, defense counsel Mark Vinluan argued that the "kill" remarks Duterte uttered in 2024 — the heart of the first phase of her impeachment trial — do not qualify as an impeachable offense as there is no proof she hired an actual assassin.
1. Defense argues no proof of a hired assassin
Vinluan claimed the prosecution's own evidence falls short of showing Duterte contracted an individual to kill.
He pointed to a statement prosecutors made a day earlier — that the video "may not actually 100% prove" any hiring.
"The prosecution admitted that the video does not prove any fact other than its existence," Vinluan said. "In simple words, there is no proof of any contracting of an assassin."
The word "assassin," he argued, came from people who took Duterte's statements out of context.
Vinluan also said Duterte did not utter these remarks as vice president.
"When VP Sara uttered those words, she was not responding as Sara Duterte, the vice president, but Sara Duterte the wife, mother, daughter, and sister who only sought to protect her own and her family members' lives," he added.
The vice president was, Vinluan said, merely reacting to a real plot to kill her, one dubbed "Operation Romanov."
In the NBI's case, Vinluan said Duterte's own account had been ignored. He cited the NBI's records, including the questioning of journalists who covered the November briefing, to argue that the threat against her had been raised repeatedly and dismissed.
2. Duterte's words tied to chief of staff's detention
The defense pointed to the 2024 detention of Duterte's chief of staff, Zuleika Lopez, as the main trigger provoked the vice president's remarks.
In the video, Lopez is seen sobbing while taking questions during a Zoom press conference, while inside her detention room at the Batasang Pambansa complex.
She was detained there after being held in contempt by House lawmakers conducting a probe on the Office of the Vice President's confidential funds. Duterte had snubbed this hearing.
Lopez was cited in contempt by the House good government committee over an OVP letter sent to state auditors seeking to withhold certain key audit documents. Lopez signed this letter.
After the defense showed the video, Hontiveros asked whether the defense was arguing that Duterte's alleged threats were spurred by Lopez's predicament.
Narvasa—the defense counsel who earlier cross-examined witness Calilung—said the point was broader than this and that the House had subjected Duterte and the people around her to what he called "systematic oppression."
He said Lopez had been cited in contempt and detained even as she answered lawmakers' questions, and that her lawyer was barred from being with her when authorities moved to transfer her to a women's correctional facility.
3. Senator-judges join the questioning
The third day drew a wider set of senator-judges into the questioning, with at least a dozen taking turns examining Calilung after the cross-examination by the defense.
Beyond Cayetano, Hontiveros and Tulfo, those who asked questions included Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian and senator-judges Bam Aquino, Kiko Pangilinan, Joel Villanueva, Imee Marcos, Erwin Tulfo, Robin Padilla and Migz Zubiri, among others.
Aquino, noting the single witness had by then consumed most of two trial days, urged both sides to keep the coming testimonies "straight to the point," calling the proceedings a "people's tribunal" that the public was watching.
