The Davao City government awarded P34.2 million in contracts to a company Vice President Sara Duterte has declared as one of her business interests, a procurement official told the Senate impeachment court on Tuesday, September 22, 2026.
Rendell Sopeña, chief of the Electronic Government Procurement Operations Division of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), said City Hall gave GenCorp Industries 15 contracts during the period covered by the agency’s records. That amount makes up nearly all of the roughly P35 million in government business the firm won while Duterte served as the country’s second-highest official.
According to the PhilGEPS data presented by the prosecution, GenCorp secured 49 contracts from July 21, 2022 to June 23, 2026. Two national government offices in the Davao Region were responsible for the rest. PhilHealth’s regional office awarded 33 contracts worth P1.3 million, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Region XI awarded one contract worth P330,000.
The Davao City deals carry added weight because the city’s mayor is the Vice President’s brother, Sebastian Duterte. Lead prosecutor Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro asked the court to take judicial notice of Republic Act No. 12009, or the New Government Procurement Act, which makes a local government’s chief executive its head of the procuring entity. She also asked the court to recognize that Mayor Duterte holds that role in Davao City.
The mayor will be asked to explain those transactions in person. Court spokesman Reginald Tongol confirmed that subpoenas were served on Tuesday ordering him to appear before the senator-judges on September 28, 29 and 30. Prosecutors have said they will question him about GenCorp and its dealings with City Hall, and will ask that he be treated as a hostile witness.
Luistro argued that the procurement records support the prosecution’s claim that the Vice President never divested her business and financial interests after taking office. She cited Article 7, Section 13 of the Constitution, which prohibits the President, the Vice President and other specified executive officials from engaging in any business or having a financial interest in any government contract during their tenure.
The ownership trail, however, is not straightforward. Gerardo del Rosario, director of the SEC Company Registration and Monitoring Department, testified that although Duterte declared shareholdings in GenCorp, Great Jolly Times Food Corp. and Timesquare Bee Foods Corp., corporate filings show no record of her involvement.
When presiding officer Francis Escudero showed him her 2024 and 2025 statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, in which she listed herself as an incorporator and stockholder of the two food firms, Del Rosario said: “For Great Jolly Times, her name does not appear here. For Times Square, her name also does not appear as an incorporator or shareholder.” He added that her name is absent from the firms’ incorporation papers through their 2023 General Information Sheet.
Del Rosario also confirmed to Sen. Erwin Tulfo that Jaime T. Cruz, the country’s envoy to China during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s term, appeared in the corporate records of Metro City Chow Foods Corp., Davao New Royal Taipan Corp. and Davao Bounty Times Food Corp.
Palace press officer Claire Castro said Malacañang’s position is that the rule of law must prevail. “We will no longer comment on that. VP Sara is a grownup and should not be given advice. She knows what she is doing,” she said.
GenCorp’s own sales, according to the SEC summary Del Rosario prepared, reached about P1.04 billion. Sen. Francis Pangilinan added that figure to the sales of four Duterte-linked food companies and placed the combined total at P2.159 billion, which Del Rosario confirmed. The reporting periods covered by the figures differed from company to company.
“So, I would assume that based on these names (Chow Foods, Jolly Times, Timesquare Bee Foods etc.) there are many franchises in Jollibee and Chowking that have now raked in billions of their sales over a period of time,” Pangilinan asked. Private prosecutor Erwin Matib agreed and confirmed that the Vice President and her husband, Manases Carpio, held “franchises” with the two fast-food chains.
