Vice President Sara Duterte‘s legal counsel Paul Lawrence Lim has rejected the evidence presented at the House of Representatives’ impeachment hearing on Wednesday, dismissing the materials as spliced, stripped of context, and legally insufficient to establish probable cause.
The rebuttal was a direct challenge to NBI Director Melvin Matibag’s assertion that the case carried a “reasonable certainty of conviction.” The NBI filed its formal complaint against Duterte covering grave threat and inciting to sedition charges stemming from remarks she made during a virtual press conference.
The alleged threats at the center of the complaint were directed at President Bongbong Marcos., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez. The NBI authenticated video recordings of those remarks, confirming they were neither edited nor generated by artificial intelligence. Despite that authentication, Lim maintained the surrounding evidence remained fundamentally weak.
Lim also took aim at the House Justice Committee hearing, characterizing it as a ‘fishing expedition’ designed to give substance to what he called ‘defective impeachment complaints.’ The committee had voted unanimously on April 29, 2026 to find probable cause on two separate impeachment complaints against the Vice President. Lim argued the hearing exposed the thinness of the charges rather than reinforcing them.
On the NBI’s evidentiary presentation, Lim was pointed in his criticism. He stated: “Evidence is curated, even spliced. Context is ignored. Simply repeating a conclusion, no matter how vehemently, does not make it true.”
He further warned that implying guilt without an established connection “excites judgment without evidence,” characterizing the NBI’s approach as substituting opinion for facts and guesswork for investigative rigor.
Lim said the matter should now be addressed in the proper legal forums, where he noted evidence is expected to guide judgment and the rule of law is expected to be respected.
