MANILA, Philippines — The Senate impeachment court will begin hearing evidence on Wednesday related to Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds after a two-day break in the proceedings.
The 10th day of the impeachment trial will focus on Article I of the impeachment complaint. House prosecutors are expected to present two former Land Bank of the Philippines branch managers as their first witnesses.
One of the witnesses is Violeta Constantino, former manager of the Land Bank Shaw Boulevard branch, where prosecutors allege Duterte’s former special disbursing officer, Gina Acosta, withdrew a total of P125 million in four transactions between December 2022 and September 2023.
Prosecutors may also present Nenita Camposano, former manager of the Land Bank Department of Education branch. They allege Duterte’s former special disbursing officer made three withdrawals of P32.5 million each from the branch in 2023.
The witnesses were originally scheduled to testify last week, but their appearances were postponed to accommodate additional testimony from an earlier witness, oral arguments and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address.
Before Wednesday’s proceedings, House prosecutors asked the impeachment court to require the defense panel to present its evidence after each impeachment article instead of waiting until the prosecution finishes presenting evidence on all four articles.
The prosecution argued that alternating the presentation of evidence would allow the court to focus on one impeachment article at a time.
The defense opposed the proposal.
Impeachment court spokesperson Reginald Tongol said the Senate court rejected the requested change and would proceed as scheduled with the presentation of evidence on Article I.