VICE President Sara Z. Duterte declared a Gencorp Industries Inc. stockholding in her 2024 and 2025 Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) but her exact role in the company remains unclear.
Senator-Judge Bam Aquino raised the unresolved question after SEC Company Registration and Monitoring Department Director Atty. Gerardo F. Del Rosario completed cross-examination and redirect testimony on Gencorp’s records.
“Ang alam lang natin, si Vice President Sara mismo iyong naglagay ng kumpanyang Gencorp sa kanyang SALN,” Aquino said before asking private prosecutor Atty. Erwin Matib to confirm the years.
“Yes, Your Honor, for her 2024 and 2025 SALNs,” Matib answered.
Duterte’s December 31, 2024 SALN lists Gencorp Industries Inc. under her business interests and financial connections.
It identifies the nature of her interest as “Stockholder” and gives 2013 as its acquisition year.
The entry also says the company was formerly Timesquare Bee Foods Corporation and Great Jolly Times Food.
Aquino asked how the abbreviated entry should be understood.
“Nilagay po sa SALN, ‘SH,’ which presupposes that stockholder po,” Matib said.
Del Rosario has testified that Duterte’s name did not appear in Gencorp’s articles of incorporation or its GIS filings.
The company’s incorporation and shareholder records in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not list her name.
During the prosecution’s direct examination, he also said the records his department reviewed contained no certified voting trust agreement identifying another person as holding the shares for her.
His summaries did not include beneficial-ownership declarations because those forms were outside his department’s custody.
The company records nevertheless showed substantial operations.
Del Rosario read Gencorp’s total company sales of ₱1,042,746,818 and total company net income of ₱8,039,201 from 2021 through 2024.
He said the available financial statements and GIS contained no information showing a dividend declaration during that period.
Those amounts were corporate figures and were not identified as personal income received by Duterte.
Aquino said the discrepancy left two possible direct sources of an answer: Duterte herself and the company’s officers.
He first asked defense counsel Atty. Justin Nicol Gular whether Duterte’s team would state her role in Gencorp.
Gular declined to address the substance while the prosecution was still presenting its case.
“With all due respect, and while I understand where you’re coming from, it would be premature for the defense to discuss those matters,” Gular said.
Aquino said he respected that answer and turned back to the corporation.
He asked Del Rosario to identify Gencorp’s officers from the GIS.
The witness identified Kimberly Justin Y. Cruz as president and also identified the company’s treasurer and corporate secretary from the filing displayed in court.
The senator-judge said those officers could be asked to explain Duterte’s relationship with Gencorp.
Del Rosario agreed that the company’s officers would be in a position to state her role.
Aquino also acknowledged that a SALN business entry may refer to the declarant, the declarant’s spouse or qualifying children.
Matib agreed that a spouse or child could be the person connected with an entry.
The 2024 SALN page supplied to the court, however, placed Gencorp under the section bearing Sara Z. Duterte’s name and identified the interest as a stockholding.
Gencorp’s 2025 GIS identified JTC Group of Companies as its 54.99-percent shareholder.
During Senator-judge Francis Pangilinan’s earlier questions, Del Rosario said the beneficial-ownership declaration would identify the natural persons behind a corporate shareholder, but his department did not hold the form.
The presiding officer took a possible request for JTC’s records under advisement.
Aquino said Del Rosario had answered what the SEC records within his custody could establish.
The missing explanation concerned the basis for Duterte’s own sworn declaration and the form of the interest she claimed.
“Dalawang tao lang iyong makakaalam kung ano talaga iyong role niya: siya mismo,” Aquino said, before adding that Gencorp itself could also answer through its officers.
Aquino ended by identifying the question still before the parties and the impeachment court: “We don’t know. The answer is we don’t know, and we want to know. We want to find out.”
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