The House prosecution panel sees no direct answer to the allegation of offenses in the formal response submitted by the defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte, regarding articles of impeachment.

This was stated by Lead Public Prosecutor and Batangas 2nd District Representative Gerville Luistro after receiving VP Sara’s defense team's response to the articles. 

“Wala pa rin tayong nakikitang direktang sagot sa mga allegation of offenses. The least I can say is hindi responsive ang answer sa allegations of offenses,” she said

[“We still do not see any direct answer to the allegations of offenses. The least I can say is not responsive to the allegations of offenses.”]

Luistro also emphasized that the answers are not directly responsive to the allegations of offenses.

“Sadly speaking, yung naging sagot ng Vice President sa articles of impeachment, again, hindi directly responsive sa allegations of offenses,” she said

[“Sadly speaking, the answer of the Vice President to the articles of impeachment, again, not directly responsive to the allegations of offenses.”]

According to VP Sara’s defense team spokesperson Atty. Michael Poa, the gist of their response to the articles of impeachment is about the infirmities that happened in the House Committee on Justice before being transmitted to the Senate. 

“Sa tingin namin, may mga infirmities yung proceedings bago pa umakyat sa Senado itong articles of impeachment. Ah but having said that na sabi ko nga eh maliban doon eh sumagot din kami on the substantive issues,” he said

[“For us, there were infirmities in the proceedings before these articles of impeachment reached the Senate. But having said that, I said, aside from that, we also answered on the substantive issues.”]

The defense team of VP Sara is also hoping to dismiss the articles of impeachment but if the request is not granted, they will show up.

“As I said, ultimately, dismissal po ng articles of impeachment at titingnan natin kung ano yung mangyari sa proceedings and we will participate and definitely we will abide by what is constitution permissible into constitutional processes later,” Poa said

Bicol Saro Partylist Representative Terry Ridon stated that the response of the defense team of VP Sara is rehash and offers nothing new.

“It’s the rehash of the non-answer in House Justice proceedings, so wala po itong inilatag na bago,” he said

[“It’s the rehash of the non-answer in House Justice proceedings, so they have laid down nothing new.”]

Also, the Kabataan Partylist led an impeachment forum held in Congress.