Manila, June 16 -- Bantay Senado, the citizens' monitoring network for the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, is calling on the Senate Impeachment Court to open the June 18 pre-trial conference to the media and public.

In a statement Tuesday, the group maintained that transparency in impeachment proceedings is a constitutional obligation rather than a procedural option.

It strongly urged the impeachment court to reconsider its position after the court notified parties that the June 18 pre-trial conference "shall not be open to the media or public," citing the need to give the parties "the widest freedom and latitude" in the proceedings.

"The pre-trial conference is the stage where the ground rules of the trial ar...