Court cuts VP Sara fund exhibits by two-thirds

MANILA, Philippines — Documentary exhibits for Vice President Sara Duterte’s confidential funds issue were slashed by two-thirds on Monday by the Senate impeachment court.

Presiding Judge Francis Escudero announced that 10 of the 15 boxes of documentary exhibits would no longer need to be presented after both parties agreed to stipulate on several common documents.

However, he stressed that the court could not compel Duterte’s defense team to stipulate to the remaining 845 acknowledgment receipts (ARs) covering Dec. 21 to 31, 2022.

“If they’re not willing to stipulate, the court cannot twist their hand into stipulating for whatever reason they may have, so kindly proceed as you intended to,” Escudero told prosecution counsel Lorna Kapunan yesterday.

The trial was suspended for 43 minutes to allow both parties to compare documentary exhibits before the direct examination of former Commission on Audit state auditor Roderick Wamil.

The defense, however, refused to stipulate 845 ARs covering Dec. 21 to 31, 2022, citing discrepancies in the documents.

“We have no problem stipulating but due to the voluminous nature of the documents, we would want to make sure, ensuring the rights of our client, especially if there are questions of change of custody, etc.,” Poa said.

“The problem here is during the marking, there were inconsistencies with the number of ARs that were presented between each party and that is why we cannot stipulate on the same,” he added.

Kapunan, meanwhile, welcomed the reduction in exhibits, saying, “I think it saved Senate judges 10 boxes. We have 15 boxes, your honor. 2/3 or the total.”

Initially, the prosecution intended to present a total of 3,617 acknowledgment receipts, which were “common exhibits” from the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), where Duterte served as secretary, and were submitted in connection with the liquidation of confidential funds.

According to private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr., the prosecution had sought stipulations during pretrial proceedings to speed up the proceedings by eliminating the need for witnesses to identify and authenticate each document individually, but the defense agreed only to some documents after the matter was raised again in open court.

“The P125-million confidential fund was supposed to be for the last quarter of 2022 – meaning October, November and December – but based on the documents submitted by the OVP itself, there were only 11 remaining days in the month of December 2022,” Tolosa said.

Wamil also testified earlier that the OVP’s liquidation report covered Dec. 21 to 31, 2022.

He also found that the initial Physical and Financial Plan and accomplishment report did not specify the confidential activities needed to determine whether the expenditures complied with Joint Circular 2015-01, prompting the issuance of an Audit Observation Memorandum and the submission of a revised accomplishment report. — Delon Porcalla, Bella Cariaso

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