THE House prosecution on Saturday questioned why Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s defense spent an entire hearing explaining a restaurant bill and shoe purchases worth less than P500,000 while leaving allegations of at least P817.87 million in unexplained wealth largely unanswered.
Prosecution legal spokesperson and counsel Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. said he was surprised that the defense chose to present two witnesses on Thursday to explain separate credit card transactions involving Duterte’s husband, lawyer Manases Carpio.
“Eight hundred seventeen million [pesos] at the very least ang pinag-uusapan, unexplained. But they chose, for example, last Thursday, naubos ho ’yung araw natin ang pinag-usapan, dalawang witness, tig-iisang transaction doon sa credit card,” Tolosa said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.
Tolosa was referring to a P205,007 restaurant bill in Tokyo, Japan, and P256,882 worth of Nike shoes purchased in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The defense presented lawyer Anel Martin Antero to explain the restaurant bill and Chadrin Parian to account for the shoe purchases.
Tolosa said the two transactions were not included in the prosecution’s P817.87-million computation of alleged unexplained wealth.
“And in fact, itong mga ito, hindi ho ’yan sinama doon sa computation noong 817 million [pesos], ‘no. So it didn’t even touch on that number,” he said.
The P817.87-million figure came from forensic accounting expert Alexander Cabrera, who examined Duterte’s assets, income, bank transactions and business interests from 2022 to 2025.
Tolosa said the defense had the discretion to choose its witnesses but questioned why it devoted so much hearing time to transactions that did not directly address Cabrera’s principal findings.
“But again, sila ho namili niyan, ng mga witnesses na iyan, at they chose na iyan ho ’yung sagutin na issues out of itong kabuuang issue nitong pinag-uusapan na unexplained wealth,” he said.
He also noted that the defense withdrew its planned bank witnesses, who were expected mainly to identify correspondence rather than explain the transactions reflected in bank records.
With only eight to 10 defense witnesses reportedly remaining, Tolosa said it was still unclear whether Duterte’s lawyers would present evidence directly addressing the alleged unexplained wealth.
“As to meron ho ba silang maiharap na testigo? Well, that remains to be seen. So hintayin ho natin kung masasagot ho nila itong mga importanteng ebidensya na nailapag ho natin,” Tolosa said.
The defense has maintained that it is presenting evidence to answer the prosecution’s allegations and provide Duterte with the strongest possible defense.
The Senate impeachment court is scheduled to resume hearings on Nov. 19 and 20.
metrosundaily
