Who is Benjamin Tolosa Jr, prosecution’s legal spokesperson in Sara Duterte trial?

Lawyer Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. joins the growing number of talking heads from the House of Representatives in the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Tolosa, however, will specifically be the legal spokesperson, articulating the prosecution‘s legal arguments and simplifying it to the media and the general public as the trial unfolds.

“The impeachment is a pivotal constitutional proceeding. It is one of the most important accountability mechanisms for public officials under the Constitution. As a trial lawyer, I found it to be a meaningful opportunity to place my experience in the service of that process,” Tolosa said on Monday, June 22.

Tolosa is the founding and managing partner of Tolosa Javier Lim and Chua law firm, and also its head of litigation and dispute resolution.

According to his LinkedIn bio, he spent more than four years at ACCRALaw Offices, a premier law firm co-founded by former Senate president Edgardo Angara.

He was among the lawyers of US serviceman Joseph Pemberton, who is accused of killing a Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude in October 2014.

His website bio also includes the following career highlights:

• Defending “some of the country’s biggest mining companies against the government in a petition for injunction involving a government contract with financial impact amounting to billions of pesos”
• Representing the Philippine Airlines when it needed injunctive relief from the court
• Lawyering for a “former high-ranking government official in a multi-billion controversy which has received national attention during the current pandemic”
• Served as lawyer for a “senatorial candidate in an election dispute before the Senate Electoral Tribunal”
• Won a “multi-million arbitral award for one of the country’s biggest construction firms”

Tolosa also served as in-house counsel for PMFTC Incorporated, a local affiliate of Fortune 500 company Philip Morris International.

In government, he was once a legal counsultant for the Bureau of Immigration.

Tolosa graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with an undergraduate degree in legal management in 2003, and finished law in the same institution in 2008.

Aside from being a legal spokesperson, he will also be among the several private prosecutors in the impeachment trial.

Tolosa’s designation comes days after a report claimed that trial lead prosecutor Jinky Luistro was outgunned by Duterte’s defense lawyers in the first day of pre-trial proceedings. Luistro and the prosecution have refuted this report.

The move reflects the House’s effort to beef up its litigation bench with seasoned trial lawyers. Public prosecutors, who have limited recent courtroom exposure, are expected to face a defense team composed of highly experienced litigators.

Aside from Tolosa, the House has named Lanao del Sur 1st District Representative Zia Alonto Adiong and Kabataan Representative Renee Co as House trial spokespersons. Luistro and her fellow prosecutors have also often granted interviews with the media. – Rappler.com