THE inclusion of Michael Poa, former spokesperson of the Department of Education (DepEd), in Vice President Sara Duterte’s legal team appears to be a strategy to prevent him from testifying in the impeachment trial by invoking lawyer-client confidentiality, an administration lawmaker said yesterday.
Poa was appointed spokesperson by Duterte when she headed the DepEd.
Rep. Jude Acidre (PL, Tingog), in an online press conference, said the move was expected because they can hide behind the “principle of lawyer-client confidentiality.”
Acidre said Poa, who is also a former spokesman of the Office of the Vice President, could shed light on issues hounding the Vice President’s use of confidential funds, especially since he has already faced the House committee on good government and public accountability when lawmakers investigated the issue.
The Supreme Court’s Office of the Spokesperson last Monday confirmed that Poa filed his entry of appearance as co-counsel for the Vice President in the petition she earlier filed questioning the constitutionality of the House of Representatives’ move to impeach her.
Poa has said he joined Duterte’s legal team because “the petition also raises constitutional questions, concerns that need to be addressed.”
In a petition for certiorari and prohibition with urgent prayers for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and or writ of preliminary injunction, the Vice President told the High Court that the House of Representatives and its members “deliberately circumvented” the one-year ban on filing impeachment complaints “by directing its Secretary General to allegedly give them more time to file the fourth impeachment complaint, despite the fact that three prior separate impeachment complaints had been filed” in December last year.
The Vice President filed the petition on February 18, the same day that a group of Davao City-based lawyers led asked the SC to stop the Senate impeachment proceedings on the ground that it stems from a “defective” and “constitutionally infirm” impeachment complaint.
The Vice President was officially impeached after 215 lawmakers endorsed the verified impeachment complaint filed by the majority bloc, exceeding by 113 signatories the constitutional requirement of one-third of all members of the House which currently has 306 members.
Acidre said the move to include Poa seems to be another attempt to “deflect attention from unanswered questions regarding the alleged misuse of public funds.”
Duterte is accused of questionable disbursements under the OVP worth P254.8 million and linked to 1,322 fictitious beneficiaries who had no birth records and another P43.2 million in alleged ghost transactions involving 405 fake names under the DepEd confidential fund.
Taguig City Rep. Amparo Maria Zamora said that while Poa has left the Vice President’s camp for a while amid the allegations against her, his inclusion in the legal team no longer came as a surprise to her.
She said Poa has long been part of Duterte’s official family.
Zamora recalled Poa’s previous claim that he had no knowledge of certain details regarding the use of confidential funds, adding that she now expects him to be able to provide answers in his capacity as a member of Duterte’s legal team.
