The prosecution’s voice: Zia Adiong takes on spotlight role in trial of the decade

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'I do not want Mindanao to be continuously associated with an individual who's facing a lot of charges,' says Adiong

Congressman Zia Alonto Adiong will be booked and busy in the next few months.

The lawmaker from Lanao del Sur’s first district takes on the role as spokesperson for the House prosecution against Vice President Sara Duterte, sharing the job with Kabataan Representative Renee Co.

His role in the trial of the decade is a high-risk, high-reward assignment amid a highly volatile political climate. The fact that he’s Mindanaoan doesn’t make this any less easy.

Dependable messenger

Adiong, now 46, was born into politics, and is no stranger to the cameras.

He belongs to the political clan that has ruled Lanao del Sur for decades: his father Mamintal Sr., mother Soraya, and siblings Mamintal Jr. and Ansaruddin have previously served as either congressmen or governor of the province.

The younger Adiong first came to the national limelight as spokesperson of the crisis management committee during the Battle of Marawi between the Philippine government and ISIS-linked militants in 2017. Also an assemblyman of the now-defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Adiong had to articulate the humanitarian and political dimensions of the conflict.

It’s also a job that required him to counter anti-Maranao sentiment, even when the messaging came from the Philippine president himself. After Rodrigo Duterte blamed the people of Marawi for “letting” terrorists seize Marawi, Adiong pushed back, reminding naysayers that his people were the victims.

In 2019, he became an inaugural member of the Bangsamoro parliament. Three years later, he succeeded his brother in the Philippine House of Representatives.

Picking a side

Just like most members of the 19th Congress, he was at first allied with Vice President Sara Duterte, in the sense that the supermajority of the House supported what was then a still-intact partnership between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his 2022 running mate.

When the Uniteam fully collapsed in 2024, it was apparent that Adiong had sided with the Marcos administration. He was among the many members of the “Young Guns,” the House clique that defended then-speaker Martin Romualdez from the public tirades of the Vice President.

In the first House budget deliberations for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) after Duterte’s resignation from Marcos’ Cabinet, Adiong was tasked to sponsor the funding proposal of her office on the plenary floor.

Adiong practiced restraint at first, carefully choosing his words while others made no effort to hide their frustration against the uncooperative Vice President during committee-level deliberations. But when the OVP left him hanging during plenary debates, Adiong was left no choice but to air his grievances.

“It’s really hard for me to sponsor and defend a budget that lacks preparation and did not clearly identify programs they want to implement,” Adiong was quoted as saying in September 2024. It was the year that the House slashed her office’s request from P2 billion to over P700 million.

Later, Adiong joined the fray in flagging Duterte’s confidential expenses during the House good government committee’s inquiry against her. He now believes it’s his participation in these hearings that made him a viable choice to be a talking head of the prosecution.

Saying yes to trial role

Adiong said he learned that he was a candidate to be the trial spokesperson for the prosecution in April, as party leaders discussed among themselves which lawmaker would best serve as the voice of the prosecution. Adiong is an active member and spokesperson of Romualdez’s Lakas, still the ruling party of the House.

It was during a May 19 press conference by the prosecution team — their first joint briefing — that justice committee chair and lead prosecutor Jinky Luistro announced Adiong and Co’s titles as House trial spokespersons.

Adiong said his new designation does not come with extra pay, and calls it a tough calling. Yet again, his role is to laymanize, to simplify — only this time, it’s not his Maranao’s concerns that he has to outline, but the articles of impeachment against a vice president accused of misspending public funds, bribing government officials, amassing unexplained wealth, and threatening the life of the President.

His roots, optics-wise, will come into play, signifying that even lawmakers from the part of the Philippines that embraced the Duterte brand of politics want the veep removed from office.

Surveys show the Vice President remain overwhelmingly popular in southern Philippines despite all the issues hurled at her and her family. This puts Mindanaoan lawmakers at a political crossroads, as their constituents push back against their vote to impeach Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter.

But Adiong insists that VP Sara is a bad representation of Mindanao.

“As a Mindanaoan, I do not want Mindanao to be continuously associated with an individual who’s facing a lot of charges. I also want to present Mindanao as an island where there are also quality leaders,” Adiong said in a Rappler Talk interview on Thursday, May 21.

Adiong gives a “100% assurance” that once the prosecution has laid out all its arguments and pieces of evidence, the opinion of Duterte’s most loyal supporters will change.

“You’re that confident?” we asked.

“I am confident,” he replied. – Rappler.com