Cautious VP Sara defense refuses to vouch for thousands of confidential receipts

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte's lawyers did not vouch for thousands of acknowledgment receipts covering her confidential expenses during the trial on Monday, August 3, as counsel Michael Poa said they were simply too voluminous to check on the spot.

At a press conference after the hearing, Poa said the sheer volume and form of the standalone, unattached receipts made it difficult to stipulate to their authenticity without compromising Duterte's rights.

"It’s because they are loose, separate sheets, so we cannot stipulate based on around 3,000 to 4,000 documents," Poa explained, in mixed English and Filipino.

Poa said the defense sought to stipulate to as many documents as possible but drew a "hard line" at the loose receipts.

"We really have to protect the rights of our client. We aren’t saying something was faked — we just want to make that clear. What we’re saying is, we simply don’t know," Poa said during the press conference.

Besides this, however, the defense stipulated to nearly all of the documents, sparing the court a drawn-out scrutiny of 10 of 15 boxes of evidence, prosecution Lorna Kapunan said.

The defense accepted the authenticity of Commission on Audit's documents, including the audit observation memorandum and the notice of suspension it issued to the OVP over its fourth-quarter 2022 funds.

As expected, however, the defense refused to concede that the OVP received P125 million on December 2022 and spent it within 11 days.

Poa said the defense would address the alleged 11-day spending period during cross-examination.

"[For the] 11 days, there are explanations for that. We can do something to cross that. So we haven't agreed to the stipulation there yet," Poa added.

The defense counsel said nothing presented on Monday was new, since the material came from COA findings already made public.

Background. The acknowledgment receipts from December 2022 have been public since November 2024, when the House committee on good government and public accountability took them up in its inquiry into the OVP's confidential funds.

Those hearings produced the name "Mary Grace Piattos," whose signature appeared on a P70,000 receipt for medicines, the same receipt Kapunan showed the impeachment court on Monday.

Earlier this year, COA denied Duterte's appeal on the notice of disallowance for her office's December 2022 confidential expenses.

Duterte previously distanced herself from the receipts and explained she had nothing to do with preparing them.

• Latest
• Trending