Editorial cartoon by VINCENT GO
Prosecuting the accused in an impeachment trial is no walk in the park, and it took Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago to drive home that point.
Absent for the entire first week of the trial due to illness, she showed up on Day 5 and more than made up for her absence by grilling the opposing sides like the trial judge she once was.
On her questioning, Santiago managed to elicit the information that the prosecution had no idea how many witnesses they had lined up for all eight articles of impeachment, and no idea how many documents they were to present. Compared to the defense, which had the information at their fingertips, the prosecution looked ill prepared and clueless.
“You should even have a trial brief,” she told lead prosecutor Niel Tupas Jr., who did not even deny the absence of such a brief.
Santiago’s questioning reminds the prosecution an impeachment is not a trial won by publicity or end-of-the-day press conference, but a trial that will be won by reason, logic, evidence and experience.
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