THE Senate Impeachment Court on Wednesday declared Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s former Department of Education (DepEd) chief of staff Michael Wesley Poa a hostile witness, allowing the House prosecution to question the now-defense lawyer using leading questions.
Presiding Officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero issued the ruling shortly before private prosecutor Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. began his examination of Poa on DepEd’s P112.5 million in confidential funds.
“The Chair will proceed to declare Atty. Poa as a hostile witness, therefore giving Atty. Tolosa the right to ask leading questions, but again, as a reminder, not to ask misleading questions,” Escudero ruled.
Poa served as DepEd undersecretary, chief of staff and spokesperson during Duterte’s tenure as education secretary and is now a member of her defense team in the impeachment trial.
Lead defense counsel Shiela Sison acknowledged that Poa is one of Duterte’s lawyers and could not be expected to simply adopt the prosecution’s theory of the charge.
“It is a matter of record that the witness is part of the defense team and one of the lawyers of the Vice President, and it can be reasonably presumed that the witness will not provide on a plate the prosecution’s theory and conclusions,” Sison told the court.
The prosecution sought Poa’s hostile-witness designation as it prepared to question him over his role in responding to Commission on Audit findings on DepEd confidential fund expenditures.
Tolosa told Escudero that Poa had previously acknowledged having no personal knowledge of how the confidential funds were actually used on the ground before he was tasked to respond to the audit observations.
“Why is it that the Vice President tasked one of his trusted aides to respond to the AOMs issued by the COA when he confessed that he knew nothing about it? That is very material,” Tolosa said.
Asked by Escudero to clarify what he meant by “knew nothing,” Tolosa said Poa “had no personal knowledge about how the confidential funds were, as he mentioned it, operationalized or used on the ground.”
The prosecution is examining the circumstances surrounding the use and liquidation of P112.5 million in DepEd confidential funds in 2023 as part of the first Article of Impeachment against Duterte.
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