Tranquil Salvador III, one of the defense counsels for former Chief Justice Renato Corona, said the prosecution in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial was unable to corner her lawyer Michael Poa on the stand when he was presented as a hostile witness.
Salvador said Poa was not put in a box and got the chance to explain when he was being questioned by the prosecution and the senator-judges.
“Sa tingin ko, kung ang objective ng prosecution ay makakuha sila ng material information, palagay ko hindi. Kasi ang nagkaroon ng platform para magpaliwanag, si Atty. Poa,” Salvador said on Bilyonaryo News Channel’s “On Point.”
He said he was not saying whether Poa’s explanations were strong or not, but was pointing out that he had the opportunity to elaborate on his responses.
“Sa madaling salita, masabi ko, hindi siya na-corner. Hindi siya nailagay sa box,” he said, adding that this was usually the fate of hostile witnesses.
Poa, a former Department of Education undersecretary and chief of staff when Duterte headed the department, was summoned in connection with allegations of confidential fund misuse.
It was Poa who responded to the Commission on Audit’s notices about the DepEd’s fund use. He said he did not have personal knowledge of how the funds were spent.
Salvador said Poa was not cornered because he is a lawyer and is steeped in facts, having been Duterte’s spokesperson and now her counsel in the impeachment case.
This makes Poa very familiar with the case, he said.
In hindsight, he said the prosecution should not have called Poa as a witness and should just have waited for the defense to present him and then cross-examined him.