MANILA — The Senate impeachment court on Wednesday granted two procedural motions filed by the House prosecution, allowing it to take judicial notice of previous House proceedings and transfer exhibit markings for portions of the affidavit of self-confessed former Davao Death Squad (DDS) member Arturo Lascañas.

In both rulings, however, the court emphasized that it was not ruling on the truth of the allegations against Vice President Sara Duterte or on the admissibility and evidentiary value of the underlying evidence.

Presiding Officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero granted the prosecution’s motion for judicial notice of the existence and official character of the proceedings of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the House Committee on Justice.

The House Good Government panel conducted hearings in 2024 on the alleged misuse of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte.

The House Justice Committee, meanwhile, heard the verified impeachment complaints before endorsing the articles of impeachment to the House plenary, which impeached Duterte and transmitted the case to the Senate for trial.

The ruling covers the official transcripts, audiovisual recordings, and committee report generated from those proceedings.

Escudero clarified that the court was recognizing only that the hearings were officially conducted and that the records exist as official documents.

He stressed that the ruling does not establish the truth of any testimony, allegation, finding, or conclusion contained in those records.

The presiding officer also reminded the prosecution that judicial notice does not replace the formal presentation and offering of evidence and does not dispense with rules on authentication, hearsay, relevance, or the respondent’s right to challenge the evidence.

In a separate ruling, Escudero denied the defense’s objection to the prosecution’s request to transfer exhibit markings from provisional copies to certified true copies of portions of the Lascañas affidavit.

The affidavit was first introduced during the testimony of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag, who identified it as one of the materials reviewed during the bureau’s open-source investigation into Vice President Duterte’s alleged threats against President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.

Matibag testified that investigators considered the document as part of their assessment of what prosecutors described as an alleged pattern of violence involving Duterte.

The affidavit contains allegations linking Duterte to the alleged Davao Death Squad and extrajudicial killings.

Escudero recalled that the prosecution had represented that the affidavit was presented only to show that it formed part of the NBI’s investigation, and not to prove the truth of its contents.

He said the transfer of exhibit markings was merely a procedural step to maintain the orderly identification of court records and did not constitute a ruling on the affidavit’s authenticity, admissibility, or evidentiary value.

Escudero also noted that the purported affidavit remains unsigned, unauthenticated, and unsworn, and that no witness has testified regarding its execution or the truth of its contents.

He cautioned that neither ruling should be interpreted as the impeachment court’s acceptance of the truth of the House proceedings or the allegations contained in the Lascañas affidavit, emphasizing that these matters remain subject to proof, objection, and the court’s independent evaluation as the trial proceeds.