House prosecutors to seek opening of VP Sara's bank accounts in impeachment trial

The House prosecution panel will seek for the opening of the bank accounts of Vice President Sara Duterte when her trial at the Senate impeachment court begins, House lead prosecutor and Batangas Second District Rep. Gerville Luistro said.

“What will be presented before the Senate trial that were not seen during the House [clarificatory hearings] are the documents from banks and testimony of bank officials. We took the safer, conservative route [then] because we are aware of the confidentiality provisions of the Bank Secrecy law,” Luistro said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

Luistro was referring to the provision of the Bank Secrecy Law which provides an exception for the absolute confidentiality of bank records in cases of impeachment as well as the following circumstances:

• upon written permission of the depositor
• upon order of a competent court in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty of public officials
• in cases where the money deposited or invested is the subject matter of the litigation, among others.

“We did not have bank documents and bank officials in the House [hearings], but this time, during the impeachment trial, we will be moving for the issuance of subpoena to bank officials and documents,” Luistro said.

“This will be the first time that we will be able to see the bank documents [of the Vice President] and the bank officials’ testimony, and we are positive that the Senate impeachment court will be considering our motion for the issuance of subpoena [on these bank records]. I believe there are no more debates [on whether we should open the bank accounts]. There are no more issues because this is already the impeachment trial,” Luistro added.

Sought for comment by Super Radyo dzBB, Duterte's lawyer Michael Poa said the defense team won't be responding to queries as of the moment pending the start of the impeachment trial.

The Articles of Impeachment approved by the House for Senate action accuses the Vice President of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery and other high crimes, based on the following acts:

a) systematic misuse, 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 Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as Education chief

b) amassing unexplained wealth manifestly disproportionate to her lawful income and earnings during her incumbency as a public official

c) failure to fully and truthfully disclose all her and her spouse's assets, liabilities, and net worth in her statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) including in her SALN for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024;

d) failure to divest, and instead, willfully continued, all her business interests during her tenure as vice president for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025

e) giving monetary gifts or payments to DepEd officials to induce the violation and circumvention of procurement and other related laws.

f) contracting for the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former Speaker of the House and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, by making grave threats, and by actively inciting sedition against the republic.

Items a, e, and f constitute Articles 1, 3 and 4, while items b, c and d are all subsections of Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment.

Witnesses

In the same interview, Luistro also said the prosecution panel is looking to present 25 witnesses for the Vice President’s impeachment trial.

She, however, said their names cannot be disclosed yet since the vetting process on these individuals are ongoing.

“If we sum up all the witnesses for the four articles, we have around 25 witnesses,” Luistro said.

“These [witnesses] include the Department of Education (DepEd) officials and the officials of the Office of the Vice President, who are very much attached to the Vice President. That is why we call them or they are considered, under the rules of evidence, as hostile witness. We expect their loyalty to be with the Vice President, and so we need to present as hostile witness,” Luistro added.

During the House justice panel impeachment hearings, Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura testified that the Vice President and her husband, Manases Carpio, recorded P6.7 billion worth of covered and suspicious bank transactions from 2006 to 2025.

The same House justice panel hearings also revealed that the Vice President and her husband, in their joint filing of Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth before the Ombudsman, did not declare any cash on hand or in bank from 2019 to 2024. --Llanesca T. Panti/ VAL, GMA News