MindaNews / 14 July 2026 — Atty. Mark Vinluan received an admonition from Senate impeachment court presiding officer Chiz Escudero after declaring that Vice President Sara Duterte passed the Bar exam with a higher grade than most lawyers who were present during the hearing.

Vinluan asked the regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation – Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (NBI-BARMM), Jeremy Lotoc, if he knew that Duterte is a lawyer, to which the NBI official answered “yes, Sir.”

Vinluan followed his question with the remark, “She has a law degree and passed the Bar exam on the first attempt with a rating of 80 percent. She has a higher grade than most of the lawyers here.”

After Atty. Amando Ligutan of the prosecution objected on grounds of relevance, Escudero admonished Vinluan to “avoid making disparaging statements, given that there are a lot of lawyers here and you don’t know what their grades are.”

Ligutan also called Vinluan’s side remark as “foul” during the cross-examination of Lotoc on Tuesday, Day 4 of the impeachment trial.

Ligutan raised his objection after Vinluan said that Lotoc’s answer to his question was an admission that “the congressmen are all corrupt.”

“Can you confirm now that the statements she [Duterte] made about BBM, FL, the former speaker, and the congressmen relating to various acts of corruption are true and happened in real life?” Vinluan asked.

“As to the existence of the utterances, yes, Sir,” Lotoc replied.

“So you just admitted that the congressmen are all corrupt,” the defense counsel retorted.

Ligutan objected, calling Vinluan’s side remark foul.

Escudero intervened, saying Lotoc’s answer confirmed that the utterances were made. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno / MindaNews)