Objection, your honor. The public is watching

Francine Balang

An impeachment trial is decided by senator-judges, but both the prosecution and the defense know there is another audience they cannot afford to lose—the Filipino people.

Public scrutiny leaves both camps with little room to focus on the impeachment court alone. The same arguments presented before senator-judges must also resonate with undecided Filipinos while reassuring those who have already taken their side.

Neither camp can afford to ignore the public but each has chosen a different way of speaking to it. The prosecution has emphasized accessibility, while the defense has leaned on legal precision to project authority.

“It is our intention na lahat ng mangyayari during the impeachment trial should be understandable on the part of the ordinary Filipinos,” House lead prosecutor Rep. Gerville Luistro said during a press briefing on the proposed use of Filipino in the impeachment trial.

Ahead of the June 18 pre-trial conference, the House prosecution panel discussed several procedural proposals that they intended to raise before the Senate impeachment court. Among these was the adoption of Filipino alongside English as the official languages of the impeachment proceedings.

House prosecution spokesperson and impeachment adviser Robert Ace Barbers said the panel was considering translators for major Philippine languages to help explain the proceedings more clearly to the public, including:

• Bisaya
• Hiligaynon
• Bicolano

For the prosecution, making the trial understandable also meant keeping public attention on the evidence. Barbers emphasized that the impeachment was “not a debate competition,” but a constitutional process that should be judged on its merits.

If the prosecution has worked to make the law easy to follow, the defense has chosen to demonstrate its command of the law.

During witness examinations, its lawyers repeatedly raised objections over the form of questions and the admissibility of evidence. 

When the frequency of those objections drew criticisms, defense counsel Michael Poa defended them as a lawyer’s duty under the Rules of Court rather than a litigation tactic. 

That courtroom approach echoes a concern raised by UP College of Law Associate Dean Paolo Tamase that the impeachment risks becoming “over-proceduralized to the detriment of the public.” 

As legal technicalities take center stage, the proceedings can become increasingly difficult for ordinary Filipinos to follow. 

After all, the Senate is not the only audience that matters.