This fourth day of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte is revelatory. What the defense and their political allies want to achieve in this is this: exculpate Ms. Duterte through a technicality.

This is not only banal but also a grave disservice to the Filipino people who want to know the truth.

And the People will never allow this. This is a travesty of justice.

What we, the people, want to know is whether the Vice President met the very basic or fundamental standards of conduct expected of an impeachable officer.

When the prosecution has already successfully introduced evidence, including the very video showing Ms. Duterte spewing grave threats and invectives against the Chief Executive, his First Lady, and the former Speaker Martin Romualdez, the defense wants to use legal technical maneuvers to destroy the first evidence accepted by the court.

The defense should remember that before being hired as defense counsel, they are, first and foremost, officers of the court. They have the responsibility not to impede the pursuit of the truth.

And the truth is very simple—the truth the people wanted to know is whether the vice president committed the elements of a grave threat and violated her oath, bordering on sedition. Threats against the Chief Executive, the symbol of the Republic, are seditious.

Using procedural attack tactics, such as questioning a witness about the docket number when the witness lacks the competence to answer, is more about optics than substance.

But don’t get me wrong—procedural questions are allowed because cases are judged based on their conformity with substance and process.

On the fourth day of this impeachment trial, the defense lawyer probably forgot that he is not in a regular court of law. The impeachment trial is a special court, open to the public and to the senator-judges.

It would therefore be a grave disservice to the Filipino People if, based on admitted procedural defects, the Vice President were to get off. That’s a very grave case of injustice.

And based on the pace of this trial, this is exactly what the defense team, including their political allies, wants. Despite the strong evidence against Ms. Duterte.

I would say this one time, here: the Filipino people will never allow Ms. Duterte to escape accountability for her conduct on that fateful night in November 2024.

The Filipino People will seek justice somewhere else.

Just as the People are very sensitive about the 1 trillion-peso flood control projects, this issue of threats heaped upon the President by the Vice President is not just immoral—it is a culpable threat, plain and simple. Everyone saw it.

We are a decent race. We will never allow a culpable officer, much less our very own Vice President, to escape accountability on a technicality. If this were to happen, I would not be surprised if people took to the streets.