A narrow majority of adult Filipinos are aware of the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte but do not closely follow the proceedings, according to a newly-established research firm on July 23.

The two developments on Week 3 of the trial illustrate the sharply different evidentiary burdens facing the prosecution under the separate impeachment articles. One has secured access to potentially valuable financial records but still faces multiple legal and factual hurdles before those documents can establish unexplained wealth. The other rests largely on Duterte's own words, with prosecutors arguing that the constitutional offense is complete even if criminal liability remains under investigation.

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National Bureau of Investigation Regional Director Jeremy Lotoc emerged as the prosecution's most consequential witness so far, not because he presented a proverbial smoking gun, but because he became the vehicle through which prosecutors sought to transform Duterte's controversial public statements into evidence of an impeachable offense.