Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte told the Senate impeachment court on Tuesday, September 29, that he would not have taken the witness stand in his sister’s trial had he not been compelled by a subpoena.
The admission came as prosecution counsel Theodore Te questioned him, and the court later formally classified the mayor as a hostile witness in the case against Vice President Sara Duterte.
His summons centers on Davao City’s transactions with GenCorp Industries Inc., a firm in which the Vice President declared an interest in her 2024 and 2025 Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs). The case before the Senate involves allegations that she accumulated wealth she has not accounted for, did not fully declare her assets, and kept her business interests while holding the vice presidency.
Presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero ruled that the mayor’s “adverse interest” had been established. He explained that if the allegations were proven, “it might expose the mayor from liability together with the respondent (Vice President Duterte) after the fact.”
“Court, therefore, declares that the adverse interest of the witness has been established and declares him a hostile witness,” Escudero said.
The designation recognizes that the witness stands against the interests of the party that called him, in this case the prosecution. It also clears Te to put leading questions to him.
Ahead of the ruling, Te showed the mayor screenshots of his earlier public remarks. Mayor Duterte acknowledged writing a September 21 Facebook post on the GenCorp controversy, in which he cautioned against “deceptive claims and orchestrated narratives engineered solely to serve political motives that suit personal interests and promote disunity.”
He also owned up to a news report quoting him as saying the trial was designed to stop his sister from joining the 2028 race, telling the court the remark was his and rested on his “perception.”
