Senate Assures Nation That Tainted Witnesses Are “Still Witnesses”
Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial Anchored to Witness Who Admits He Made Everything Up
Senate Legal Experts Confirm: “Technically He Was in the Room”
MANILA — The impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte entered a new phase this week after analysts warned that the prosecution’s entire case rests on a witness whose credibility has been described, by legal scholars, as “a sandcastle at high tide.” The Senate pressed forward.
“He is still a witness,” confirmed a Senate source who asked not to be named, possibly for professional reasons. “He was there. He has a mouth. He used the mouth to say things. That is testimony.”
A Brief History of Me Believing Official Statements
I have lived in Manila long enough to have believed: that EDSA would be unclogged by 2010, that the LRT would extend to everywhere useful, and that every single impeachment trial would result in justice swiftly served. I am now a cautious man. I drink my coffee black because optimism is a condiment I can no longer afford.
The Manila Times reported that the prosecution’s strategy of “anchoring the case on a tainted witness” was described by defense lawyers as “a dangerous gambit” and by observers as “classic.” The Supreme Court of the Philippines has, in past rulings, noted that testimony must be credible — a standard that Senate proceedings have historically treated as a “suggested guideline.”
The British Parallel
In the UK, parliamentary inquiries collapse when witnesses are caught embellishing. In Manila, they gain momentum. The witness at the center of this trial has reportedly revised his statement four times, each version more dramatic than the last, trending upward toward what legal analysts at the fictitious Center for Dramatic Jurisprudence call “peak telenovela.”
Bohiney Magazine’s Philippine political satire coverage has long documented Manila’s proud tradition of trials that produce more entertainment than verdicts. The Senate is, if nothing else, must-see TV.
The Transparency International Philippines index remains somewhere between “working on it” and “we have a committee for that.” The committee has not met.
Related absurdities at Waterford Whispers News.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com