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Metro Manila, Philippines – The prosecution panel in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial have dropped the Office of the Vice President chief of staff Zuleika Lopez and Legislative Security Bureau executive director Capt. Belinda Bello as witnesses for Impeachment Article IV, on Duterte’s grave threats.  Counsel for prosecutor Lorna Kapunan, in a manifestation on Tuesday, July 14, said her panel would no longer present the two. “We find it totally unnecessary, redundant, and a surplusage to present Atty. Zuleika Lopez and as well Capt. Belinda Bello,” Kapunan told the Impeachment Court.  Kapunan said that they wanted to examine Lopez, a close friend of Duterte, to prove that she was in the detention center when the vice president made her alleged kill threat.  Bello would have corroborated Lopez’s transfer to the House detention center after the House held her in contempt during a hearing on Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds.…

Metro Manila, Philippines – The counsel of Vice President Sara Duterte argued that her statement claiming that she contracted someone to kill the presidential family if she herself were killed were not threats but merely responses to a question during an online press conference.  Senator-judge Pia Cayetano on Tuesday, July 14, the fifth day of the impeachment trial, questioned the two opposing counsels on the nature of a threat. She wanted to know if the victim of a threat needs to feel threatened or is it enough that the public consider a statement threatening to determine that a statement is a grave threat.  Amando Virgil Ligunan, counsel for the prosecutor, cited two Supreme Court rulings: Paera vs. People who ruled that a private complainant is not needed for a grave threats charge, and Garma vs. People, which affirmed that the recipient of a threat does not need to feel threatened…

Metro Manila, Philippines –  President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered a tighter review of the proposed 2027 national budget, directing government agencies to prioritize projects that can be implemented immediately and deliver tangible benefits to the public. Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said the review of the proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) is continuing after the Cabinet discussed the spending plan on Friday, July 10, as the administration works to finalize the proposal before submitting it to Congress. Recto said the president wants government spending focused on programs that directly benefit the people and are aligned with the administration’s priorities and the national development plan. He also reminded agencies that only projects that are ready for implementation and free from major bottlenecks should have priority. During the July 9 Cabinet meeting, Budget Secretary Kim de Leon presented the highlights of the proposed 2027 NEP, which was submitted to the president…

Metro Manila, Philippines – Malacañang said the United States opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) should not be interpreted as that of the country. Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro made the clarification after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration is launching an effort to dismantle what it described as the ICC threat to US sovereignty. “Hindi sakop ng ating gobyerno ang polisiya ng bansang US,” Castro said in a message to reporters. [Translation: Our government is not covered by the US policy.]  Rubio said Washington rejects the ICC authority over the US and is stepping up efforts against the tribunal, continuing a long-standing US position that the court should not have jurisdiction over American citizens, particularly members of its military. The Palace said the US policy is independent of the Philippines, which has been cooperating with the tribunal in connection with the crimes against humanity…

Metro Manila, Philippines – Vice President Sara Duterte said on Tuesday, July 14, that the impeachment complaints lodged against her are not supported by evidence. “Repeatedly claiming that there were threats when none existed, inventing an assassin where there was none, and fabricating evidence to support those claims does not transform fiction into fact. Instead, such actions undermine the integrity of public institutions, erode public trust, waste public resources, and corrupt the search for truth,” she said in a statement, her first public statement since the trial began.   Video recordings of her claiming she hired an assassin to kill the presidential family and hurling expletives at lawmakers were presented before the Impeachment Court on Monday, July 13. National Bureau of Investigation regional director Jeremy Lotoc, a witness on Duterte’s alleged grave threats, admitted there was no validated evidence to prove she contracted someone to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First…