Sara Duterte held dollar accounts, BPI confirms

VEEP. Vice President Sara Duterte waves to supporters as she arrives at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for the arraignment of her grave threats case, on October 9, 2026.

Noel Celis/Reuters

The Vice President and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte also has two time deposit accounts in BPI's Julia Vargas branch

MANILA, Philippines — The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) has confirmed that Vice President Sara Duterte held US dollar accounts with the bank, according to a letter submitted to the Senate impeachment court.

The confirmation was brought up on Day 43 of Duterte’s impeachment trial on Thursday, November 12, after defense counsel Michael Poa manifested that the defense would no longer present BPI vice president and legal department Head Paul Roderick Ysmael as a witness.

Poa explained that Ysmael was initially intended to testify and authenticate a letter he sent to the BPI dated February 24, inquiring on the existence of the BPI accounts of the Vice President and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.

But since Poa had already testified on the letter in a previous hearing, the defense had opted to dispense with Ysmael’s testimony. 

House private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim Alih said the prosecution had intended to cross-examine Ysmael and question some of the documents covered by the court’s subpoena,  including “one letter coming from the BPI where it confirmed that the VP had dollar accounts.”

“This was not within our visibility because the subpoena issued previously did not include dollar accounts, and that was precisely one of the points that, if allowed, would have been part of our cross-examination,” Alih said during the trial on Thursday.

Impeachment court presiding officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the court would have to respect the defense’s decision on which witnesses to present.

“At the proper time, Atty. Alih, you can make a tender, if at all, of excluded or not included evidence. This may be the proper subject matter of any memoranda you will submit or closing remarks of the counsel, whoever will make those closing remarks, at the end of the presentation of evidence from both sides,” Escudero said.

“Finally, this can be the proper subject matter of any rebuttal evidence you may wish to present after the respondent shall have rested, should you decide to do so,” he added.

House lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro echoed Escudero’s remarks on Friday, November 13, saying the prosecution had already rested its case and could only cross-examine the document if the defense presented it as part of its evidence-in-chief.

“We are ready to conduct our cross-examination, but of course, we understand that during the deliberation on the validity of the issuance of subpoena to BIR, banks, AMLC, the presiding officer expressly excluded the foreign accounts in view of the confidentiality provisions,” Luistro said.

During its presentation of evidence, the prosecution presented records of two time deposit accounts held by the Vice President and her father at BPI’s Julia Vargas branch to establish an alleged “pattern of concealment” involving the Dutertes’ year-end bank balances.

However, the court has yet to subpoena the underlying records of the alleged dollar accounts, as impeachment proceedings are not expressly exempted from laws protecting foreign currency deposits. – Rappler.com