Courtroom dramas are supposed to be solemn affairs. Then Atty. Lorna Kapunan walked to the lectern and reminded everyone that wit can be just as effective as a legal citation.
Serving as one of the private prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, Kapunan has turned the usually dry ritual of examining documents into something resembling live theater, without ever losing sight of the objective. Her humor is never gratuitous. It is deployed with the precision of a seasoned trial lawyer, easing tension while quietly advancing her case.
When defense lawyer Michael Poa objected that she was “coloring” the acknowledgment receipts by the way she pronounced the names of recipients of confidential funds, Kapunan barely paused.
“Your Honor, I’m just reading. It says here. It says Andy Lim. It’s the way it sounds, Your Honor. Just like, Patiting, that’s the way it is spelled. And the next one, maybe you will object again. It is Alejandro A. Pikit. I was gonna say kanya siguro madilim, may pikit ang mata. Pikit.”
Many in the gallery could not suppress a smile. The objection had been answered, the evidence remained on record, and the courtroom briefly remembered that even impeachment trials are conducted by human beings.
Kapunan had pulled off an even subtler maneuver days earlier when she withdrew witnesses on the alleged death threat charge after the defense had already admitted Duterte uttered the statements. By the time the defense grasped the tactical implications, the hearing had already moved on. Even Senator Pia Cayetano, herself a lawyer, later admitted she had to sit up and listen closely when Kapunan made the motion.
Her style could not be more different from fellow prosecutor and Akbayan Partylist Rep. Chel Diokno’s measured, professorial approach. The former law dean patiently constructs legal arguments, explaining statutes and evidence with the calm cadence of someone still teaching a classroom.
Kapunan, meanwhile, practices a different kind of advocacy. She knows that timing, humor, and storytelling can make facts linger long after legal citations fade. When asks an assiting counsel to present a document to the witness, she even called him by his full name because “her mother is watching the trial.”
Together, they remind us that winning an impeachment trial is not only about mastering the law. It is also about understanding the audience.
Diokno speaks primarily to the senator-judges who will ultimately vote. Kapunan seems equally conscious that the larger audience sits beyond the Senate chamber, watching on television and live streams. An impeachment trial, after all, is not just a legal contest. It is a public examination of whether a high official betrayed the public trust.
In that courtroom, every laugh, every objection and every carefully chosen word is also directed at the court of public opinion.
