Bello, representing the party-list group Akbayan, said getting major players like Arroyo to testify would boost the chances of convicting Gutierrez.

Bello noted that Arroyo and her Cabinet were able to evade previous investigations such as the one on the fertilizer fund scam and NBN-ZTE deal when Arroyo was in office.

“I am not part of the House legal team, but yes, I would push that we subpoena all of them since they have a direct bearing on all the cases cited in the impeachment resolution,” said Bello.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said he has left the decision on who would be called as witnesses to the House prosecution team and their private counsels. “I am not part of that (decision-making) anymore,” said Belmonte in a text message.

Short list of witnesses

One of the prosecutors, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares said the short list of witnesses would be determined after the articles of impeachment h ad been divided among the 11-member prosecution team, and the case brief had been finalized.

Colmenares said he expected to take the lead on the fertilizer scam and the foreign currency smuggling case of the “euro generals” and would tap the National Union of People’s Lawyers for litigation and research support.

“We will meet next week and we will announce our list of witnesses soon,” said Colmenares.

Congress voted to impeach Gutierrez, a classmate of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, for “betrayal of the public trust” for sitting on corruption cases involving the former First Couple and their allies.

The impeachment case has been forwarded to the Senate for trial.

Gutierrez has said she is confident of being acquitted in the Senate. She only needs eight senators on her side for acquittal.

Why hire private firm?

The ex-election lawyer of Arroyo, Romulo Macalintal, has twitted the House prosecution panel over its plan to tap a private firm to prosecute Gutierrez.

“[That] exposes the weakness of the prosecution case,” Macalintal said in a text message.

Macalintal observed that the prosecution had impressed on the public that it had a “strong case” against Gutierrez during the hearings, and yet its decision to hire private lawyers belied this.

“If it were strong, even a neophyte congressman-lawyer could prove the case without help from a private firm,” he said. “But to seek the help of an outsider belies the strength of its evidence and exposes its weaknesses.”

The prosecution panel, headed by Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., had said he was mulling hiring the Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco law office for Gutierrez’s impeachment trial next month.

The firm had been closely associated with Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo, until the two camps had a falling-out.

One of its managing partners, Gutierrez’s predecessor Simeon Marcelo, was a key member of the team that prosecuted President Joseph Estrada in his impeachment trial in 2000.

Senator Francis Escudero had contended that the prosecution panel’s challenge would be to prove that Gutierrez’s inaction on the cases involving Arroyo et al. constituted betrayal of the public trust, a ground for impeachment that he said was found only in the Philippine Constitution.

Macalintal also raised the issue of ethics on the prosecution’s plan to hire “The Firm” given its previous association with the Arroyos.

Gil Cabacungan, Jr. & TJ Burgonio, Inquirer.net