A Facebook post falsely claims that prosecution spokesperson Robert Ace Barbers said they will not follow proper procedure and proceed directly to voting for Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial. This is fake.
On July 5, a day before the trial began, an FB page posted a quote card of Barbers that read:
“We will shorten the process of the impeachment trial for the VP Sara Duterte. Pwede naman hindi na talaga sundin ang proseso at mag botohan na ka agad. ‘Wag kayong mag alala sisiguraduhin natin ma iimpeach ang bise presidente (We can just skip the process and proceed directly to a vote. Don’t worry, we will make sure that the vice president will be impeached).”
But Barbers has made no such remark. He has only said that the impeachment trial could be shortened if sufficient evidence is presented to the impeachment court.
In an interview with Super Radyo DZBB on July 5, Barbers said:
“If the prosecution team believes na sufficient na ang kanilang nalatag na ebidensya at nasuri na itong mabuti ng ating impeachment court, at na-counter-an din ito ng ating depensa […] sa aking palagay, eh siguro magkakaro’n ng kasunduan na umiksi itong trial na ito
(If the prosecution team believes that the evidence they have presented is sufficient and that it has been thoroughly examined by our impeachment court and countered by the defense […] then, I think, there will likely be an agreement to shorten the trial).”
This remark was made when asked whether he agreed or not with Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian’s call to shorten the impeachment trial period, which was estimated to take seven to eight months.
The false quote card, published by the FB page Surigao Media (September 25, 2019), has garnered over 4,800 reactions, 724 comments and 68 shares, as of writing. The page has over 68,000 followers. Barbers is a former congressman of Surigao del Norte.
