The Commission on Audit takes center stage when Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial resumes on Monday, August 3, with prosecutors turning from the question of where P612.5 million in confidential funds came from to the harder issue of where it went.
Two COA auditors and a custodian of House records are the witnesses set for the day, marking a shift in the prosecution’s strategy for Article I of the Articles of Impeachment. The article covers alleged misuse of confidential funds tied to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education during Duterte’s stints heading both agencies between 2022 and 2023. Earlier testimony traced the cash as it left the National Treasury; the auditors are expected to speak to how it was spent and liquidated.
House prosecutor and Manila Rep. Joel Chua indicated the panel does not intend to exhaust its full roster of 13 witnesses for the article. He said the list could be trimmed once the prosecution judges its evidence sufficient. “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. As chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability, he stressed that any reduction would not be allowed to weaken the case.
That mirrors how the panel handled Article IV, the accusation that Duterte threatened President Ferdinand Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos and former Speaker Martin Romualdez during an online press conference in November 2024. Prosecutors had prepared 11 witnesses for that article but rested after only three. Chua said the goal is to conclude the trial sooner and leave the verdict to the senator-judges: “As much as possible, we want the trial to finish earlier and wait for the senador-judges to make the final ruling.”
On the defense side, spokesman Michael Poa said the team is prepared to press the prosecution on the identities attached to the confidential funds — including the disputed name “Mary Grace Piattos,” which surfaced during the 2024 House quad committee hearings and is believed to be one of the informant-recipients of the OVP and DepEd funds. The Philippine Statistics Authority has certified that it holds no birth or death record for anyone bearing that name. Poa said the defense would work to show that no corruption is tied to the names released since those hearings.
The prosecution last week called two former Land Bank of the Philippines branch managers, who testified that treasury checks totaling P612.5 million came from the National Treasury and were drawn in cash by authorized disbursing officers of the two offices Duterte led.
Poa added that the defense plans to raise clarificatory questions during Monday’s proceedings as the three witnesses take the stand.
