A day after withdrawing as a prosecution witness in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said it was clear to him that he was unwelcome in the Impeachment Court.
“Sa akin naman kasi, the signal is clear. Hindi ako welcome,” Trillanes said Friday when asked if he was willing to return as witness should he be issued a subpoena.
Trillanes said he was on the list of witnesses covered by the prosecution’s subpoena request, and yet the Impeachment Court did not issue a summons for him.
He was even at the court and ready to be presented, he added.
He said the presentation of witnesses is the prosecution’s prerogative and the subpoena should have been ministerial.
But he also said his rejection was not collective, as there were members of the Senate he spoke to who said they were not consulted about him.
In withdrawing as witness on Thursday, Trillanes said he made the move so that the prosecution panel “would be relieved from the pressure it is going through.”
Asked about this on Friday, he said he would rather not elaborate for now so as not to be distracted from the main issue about Duterte’s actions.
He would deal with this later, he added.
Presiding Officer Sen. Francis Escudero on Tuesday said the court would not issue a subpoena for Trillanes at the moment because his expected testimony is related to bank records that have yet to be presented.
Escudero said the court cannot prevent the prosecution from calling Trillanes as a witness voluntarily, but he asked it to take under advisement his observation that it cannot put the cart ahead of the horse.
Impeachment Court spokesperson Regie Tongol has denied speculation that Escudero opposed Trillanes’ testimony.
Tongol said nobody was stopping him from appearing.
He said the non-issuance of a subpoena for Trillanes was due to the prosecution not mentioning Trillanes in its manifestation after being asked by Escudero on who they would present as witnesses this week.