CAGAYAN DE ORO — The assassination threats made by Vice President Sara Duterte against high-ranking government officials were difficult to refute, as these were witnessed by the Filipino people.

Renato Reyes Jr., president of multisectoral group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), stressed this out after the second day of Sara’s impeachment trial on Tuesday, July 7. He said the evidence presented by the prosecution is considered “public knowledge,” as many people were aware of Sara’s utterance about contracting an assassin to kill Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Liza Marcos, and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.

The issue that needs to be tackled, Reyes pointed out, is whether there is a place for such statements coming from a high-ranking government official. “Should this simply be dismissed as ‘freedom of expression,’ or should it be demonstrated that this kind of impunity and intimidation will no longer be tolerated?” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Read: Why her impeachment case matters

The prosecution presented its first witness, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Senior Agent John Mark Calilung. The latter is part of NBI’s cybercrime prevention team that was tasked to investigate Sara’s assassination threats during her two-hour November 23, 2024, virtual press conference.

Article IV, which contains Sara’s grave threats, was the first article of impeachment in the sequence of discussion. This will be followed by issues on confidential funds (Article I), bribery (Article III), and unexplained wealth (Article II).

Calilung narrated the process of how they were able to gather, preserve, and authenticate the virtual media briefing. 

A portion of another video from a press conference dated October 18, 2024, where the Vice President uttered that she was imagining beheading Marcos Jr, was also presented. The witness stated that this was the video they found when they conducted further investigation to determine the context behind Sara’s assassination threats on November 23, 2024.

Read: Progressives call for VP Sara’s conviction

Former ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro echoed Reyes’s assertion. She said during the Bantay Impeachment program of the People’s Alternative Media Network (Altermidya) on Tuesday that the Filipino people themselves can also affirm the authenticity of the video.

Xian Guevarra, secretary-general of the Computer Professionals’ Union (CPU), said that NBI’s verification method was sensible. 

Responding to the possible questioning of the witness’ credibility, Guevarra said Calilung’s work in the NBI might give him enough experience to determine the necessary things to do in the digital forensic field. “Personally, I believe that the two-week training can be enough. I am not seeing any major issues there,” he said during the same Bantay Impeachment program.

Aside from sharing his two-week intensive training in digital forensics, Calilung told the prosecution that he has been an NBI agent since 2021. He was previously assigned to the Digital Forensic Laboratory Division in 2022 and Cybercrime Division in 2024 before his current assignment in the Cyber Investigation and Assessment Center this year. He has been identifying, collecting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting digital evidence in court.

For the CPU secretary general, the authenticity of the video can no longer be questioned. What the defense lawyers can do, he said, is to discredit the witness’ credibility.  

Read: Will the Senate impeach VP Duterte?

The impeachment trial of the second highest official of the land commenced on Monday, July 6, electing Sen. Chiz Escudero as the presiding officer and settling procedural issues, including the affirmative votes needed for conviction considering the absence of Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa and the detention of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and Sen. Rodante Marcoleta.

Escudero ruled that the conviction still requires 16 affirmative votes from 24 members of the Senate. They have yet to resolve, however, the proposal to allow the detained senators to participate in the trial.

The impeachment court scheduled the cross-examination of Calilung by the defense on Wednesday, July 8. (RVO)