The House prosecution panel names ten (10) private prosecutors who will reinforce its legal team.

Lead Public Prosecutor and Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro emphasized that the involvement of private prosecutors is crucial since they have expertise in litigation.

“Kailangan po namin ang tulong ng mga private prosecutors because they are the people specialized in litigation,” she said

[“We need the assistance of private prosecutors because they are the people specialized in litigation.”]

The ten private prosecutors come from three separate law firms —  PECABAR Law,  Kapunan and Castillo Law, and the SALiGAL (Sapayan Lim Alvarez & Ligutan) Law.

The roster of private lawyers includes:

PECABAR Law

• Marforth Fua
• Erwin Matib
• Justin Anne Lamarca
• James Bryan Ibrahim Alih

Kapunan and Castillo Law

• Lorna Kapunan
• Sonya Margarita Benemerito-Castillo
• Deanna Melissa Lorenzo-Singian
• Bettina Zamora
• Lino Chris Kapunan

SALiGAL (Sapayan Lim Alvarez & Ligutan) Law

• Amando Virgil Ligutan

Atty. Marforth Fua, from PECABAR Law, is the former assistant presidential legal counsel under the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. He clarified that the President is not involved in his decision to join the prosecution team.

“It is the House who enlisted our support, not the President or not anyone in the first family,” he said

He further emphasized that their participation is just a professional matter.

“This is just any other regular case handled by the firm. It's nothing special. So it is just a purely professional engagement,” he added

House prosecutors confirmed that all private lawyers are rendering their services pro bono or free of charge.

Meanwhile, Luistro expressed faith and confidence in whoever stands as a Presiding officer in the Senate impeachment court.

“This is not a question of who is the presiding officer? Who are the senator-judges? Who are the public and the private prosecutors? No. By impeachment trial, we're trying to exact accountability to the public officials whether it is acting SP Win Gatchalian or Senator Chiz Escudero who will be presiding the impeachment trial. In behalf of the prosecutors we are expressing our faith and confidence to this accountability mechanism.” she said

With reports from Rosalie Coz