Sara Duterte impeachment trial Day 14: What to expect

The sixth week of the impeachment trial is set to begin Tuesday with a new prosecution witness from the Commission on Audit-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office (COA-ICFAO) testifying on the alleged misuse of confidential funds by Vice President Sara Duterte.

The direct examination of COA-ICFAO state auditor Xylene del Campo will continue this morning after it was halted last Wednesday, August 5, due to time constraints amid the review of voluminous records of acknowledgement receipts (ARs).

To recall, the Senate impeachment court directed both the prosecution and defense panels to agree on a date to compare the ARs submitted by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) in liquidating its P125 million confidential funds in 2022.

This, after private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan said that Del Campo would have to testify on more than 4,000 documents after the defense panel declined to enter into a joint stipulation on them.

Concerned that reviewing the voluminous records could take considerable time, Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis "Chiz" Escudero instructed Del Campo to examine the documentary evidence after the hearing so she would be prepared to testify when the trial resumes on Monday, August 10.

Defense lawyer Kristine Ferrer, in return, objected to having the examination of the documents conducted outside the court proceedings.

Aside from Del Campo, the House prosecution panel is also expected to present this week the two former special disbursing officers (SDO) of the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) during Duterte’s tenure as Education chief.

This developed as the impeachment court granted the prosecution panel’s request for subpoena ad testificandum for ex-OVP SDO Gina Acosta and ex-DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda.

The prosecution is also expected to field House of Representatives Legislative Information Resources Management Department director Marivic Pareja as witness in the impeachment trial.

This is in relation to the Article 1 of the impeachment case against Duterte which alleged her misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds—P500 million from the OVP, and P112.5 million from the DepEd. — RSJ, GMA News