The prosecution maintained throughout the submitted applications that the defense, the trial judges, and common legal representatives of victims will have the opportunity to question the witnesses live at court. They added that granting the requests will expedite the proceedings at trial.

Duterte’s co-perpetrators named in the prosecution’s trial brief are senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, former national police chiefs Oscar Albayalde and Camilo Cascolan, former director of the National Bureau of Investigation Dante Gierran, former head of drug enforcement agency Isidro Lapeña, former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and former Manila Police District director Vicente Danao.