MANILA, Philippines — The House prosecution on Monday began presenting documentary evidence in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, telling the Senate impeachment court it would identify 845 acknowledgment receipts before presenting another 3,617 as part of its case over confidential funds.
The documents are part of the prosecution’s evidence under Article I of the impeachment complaint, which accuses Duterte of misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds released to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education during her tenure as Vice President and Education secretary.
“Lastly, Your Honors, please, as you can see in front of you, we have 15 boxes, 15 boxes of confidential fund [records],” private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan told the court.
Kapunan said the records consist of liquidation documents submitted by the OVP and DepEd to the Commission on Audit in support of the liquidation of their confidential funds, covering P500 million in OVP confidential funds for the fourth quarter of 2022 and the first three quarters of 2023, and P112.5 million in DepEd confidential funds for the first three quarters of 2023.
She said former COA Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office state auditor Roderick Wamil would identify 50 exhibits, including 845 acknowledgment receipts for the OVP’s fourth quarter 2022 confidential funds.
Kapunan added that the prosecution’s next witness would identify 3,664 documents, of which 3,617 are acknowledgment receipts.
The prosecution also asked the impeachment court to accept stipulations on 50 common exhibits — 31 involving the OVP and 19 involving the DepEd — to streamline the presentation of evidence.
Defense counsel Michael Poa requested a recess to review the proposed stipulations, saying the defense wanted to ensure Duterte’s rights given the volume of the records.
“Your Honors, we have no problem stipulating, but we also, due to the voluminous nature of the documents, we just want to make sure we’re also ensuring the rights of our client,” Poa said.
Presiding Officer Sen. Francis Escudero granted the request, saying it was “in the interest of abbreviating the proceedings.”
