LIVE UPDATES: Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial (September 2, 2026)

A familiar face from the defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte will be called to the witness stand on Wednesday to address allegations of the misuse of confidential funds.

Michael Poa, spokesperson for the defense panel, will be presented by the House prosecution team as its next witness in the trial.

He is expected to testify on how the Department of Education (DepEd) disbursed P112.5 million in confidential funds during Duterte's tenure as Education secretary.

Poa served as DepEd chief of staff and spokesperson when the agency was still under Duterte's leadership.

On Tuesday, lawyer Justin Nicol Gular said that Poa temporarily stepped out of his role as the defense spokesperson amid his status as a witness.

Aside from Poa, the prosecution also requested the Senate impeachment court to issue a subpoena for Marizza Grande of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to compel her to attend Wednesday’s trial.

Grande will be called in as a witness after the testimony of Poa. Like any other witnesses, both of them will face direct and cross-examinations from the prosecution and defense panels, respectively, as well as interjections from the senator-judges.

Their testimonies will still be in relation to Article 1 of the impeachment case, which accuses the Vice President of committing impeachable offenses due to systematic misappropriation and irregular liquidation of confidential funds amounting to P500 million released to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and P112.5 million released to the DepEd. —Giselle Ombay/LDF, GMA News