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Vice President Sara Duterte meets with members of her impeachment defense team, led by Atty. Sheila Sison, at the Senate on July 7, 2026.
OVP
MANILA, Philippines — The House prosecution panel has listed 13 witnesses for Article I of the Articles of Impeachment accusing Vice President Sara Duterte of allegedly misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepED) between 2022 and 2023.
But House prosecutor Manila Rep. Joel Chua said the panel may shorten the list in the pre-trial order, like what it did in Article IV (grave threats), if the allegations can
already be established through fewer testimonies and documentary evidence.
“Let’s say after presenting eight or nine witnesses and we feel that it’s already solid, we can move on to the next article,” Chua told the Saturday News Forum.
According to the chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability, reducing the number of witnesses should not come at the expense of the strength of the prosecution’s case.
The prosecution last week presented two former Land Bank of the Philippines branch managers who testified that treasury checks totaling P612.5 million originated from the National Treasury and were withdrawn in cash by authorized disbursing officers of the OVP and DepEd, which Duterte used to head.
The prosecution will present two Commission on Audit auditors and a House records custodian as witnesses tomorrow as they shift from tracing the movement of the funds to examining how they were spent and liquidated.
Chua said the prosecution adopted the same approach in Article IV, which accuses Duterte of threatening the life of President Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos and former House speaker Martin Romualdez during an online press conference in November 2024.
He said prosecutors initially lined up 11 witnesses for that article but rested their case after presenting only three.
“As much as possible, we want the trial to finish earlier and wait for the senador-judges to make the final ruling,” Chua added.
Fictitious name?
The defense team is ready to cross-examine Mary Grace Piattos who will be presented by the House prosecution panel among their witnesses for the fourth week of the impeachment trial.
“These (witnesses) are Mary Grace Piattos, etc. We will be ready to cross-examine them to prove that there is no corruption attached to the use or names released since the House hearings back in 2024,” defense spokesman Michael Poa said over radio zMM.
The name “Mary Grace Piattos,” which is presumed to be fictitious, first surfaced during the House quad committee hearings last year and is believed to be one of the informant-recipients of the confidential funds of the OVP and DepEd totaling P612 million.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has certified that it has no record of birth or death of any individual named Mary Grace Piattos.
Meanwhile, Poa said the defense will ask clarificatory questions as the House prosecutors present three witnesses tomorrow, including two auditors from the COA.
