VP Trial Day 17: Gina Acosta to continue testimony on confidential funds

MANILA, Philippines — After two days of cancelled proceedings due to bad weather, Gina Acosta is set to continue testifying on Monday, August 24 – the 17th day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.

This schedule comes as the Senate impeachment court resumes tackling Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds.

Acosta is the former Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) special disbursing officer (SDO) who encashed the office’s confidential funds worth P125 million per quarter, from the last quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.

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Because Acosta held a coterminous position with the OVP with Duterte as her superior, last August 17, the ex-SDO was declared a hostile witness, or a witness with presumed biases for the respondent.

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READ: Like Madriaga, Acosta says 4 bags used for OVP’s P125-M secret funds

On that same day, through the House prosecution’s direct examination, Acosta reconfirmed that she picked up P125 million in cold cash from the Landbank Shaw Boulevard branch four times.

The cash was one thousand-peso bills bundled into 125 pieces of P1 million piles, Acosta said.

She also disclosed that these bundles were placed in four oblong-shaped traveling bags from the back of the bank to the OVP-issued vehicles.

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Acosta revealed that she was accompanied by OVP Assistant Chief of Staff Lemuel Ortonio in the bank visits.

Due to the bad weather, the trial was suspended early, and the prosecution did not wrap up its direct examination.

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After the prosecution finishes its direct examination, Duterte’s defense team will do a cross examination, followed by a redirect and recross should both camps choose to do so.

The next witness will be Acosta’s SDO counterpart in the Department of Education (DepEd) – former SDO Edward Fajarda.

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Fajarda was the DepEd SDO during the same time period as Acosta, when Duterte was still DepEd secretary. /apl