Should Baste Duterte get a free pass for ‘missing’ VP Sara’s ties to Gencorp?

Davao City Mayor Sebastian 'Baste' Duterte takes the witness stand on Day 31 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on September 29, 2026.

Senate Social Media Unit

Senator-judge Bong Go defends the Davao City mayor's decision to delegate signing powers, saying the younger Duterte is not the one on trial

While some grilled Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte over his decision to delegate procurement responsibilities — his defense for supposedly not knowing anything about the his city govenment’s deals with Gencorp Industries Inc. — other senator-judges came in his defense, citing the sheer volume of work mayors handle. 

Duterte took the witness stand on Tuesday, September 29, for the impeachment trial of his older sister, Vice President Sara Duterte. 

In his testimony, the mayor distanced himself from the Davao City government’s deals with Gencorp, maintaining he had no direct hand in the contracts sealed with the company linked to the Vice President.

The younger Duterte claimed he did not personally review Gencorp’s contracts and did not personally approve such deals because he did not interfere in the undertakings of city hall’s bids and awards committee. He also said he delegated his procurement responsibilities to Davao City Assistant City Administrator Tristan Domingo because of his workload as mayor.

Senator-judge Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, in a rare manifestation, defended this decision, citing the voluminous documents the Davao City mayor needed to review and sign. 

“Mayor Baste Duterte is not the one on trial here,” said Go.

“I am a witness to the work in the city hall. Davao City is a huge city, and a mayor has a lot of documents to sign. It is impossible for him to go over each document, so he really needed to delegate the task,” he said. Go had served as aide to Duterte’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, for four of his seven terms as Davao City mayor.

Senator-judges Alan Peter Cayetano and Joel Villanueva expressed similar remarks, noting the younger Duterte may have to sign at least 2,500 to 3,000 documents a week. 

“The point I want to make is this: You will not have any other time to govern if you’re going to have to look at each and every company, each and every document, each and every person…. Under the law, you can rely on the signature of your personnel officer,” Cayetano said.  

Senator-judge Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, for his part, asked the mayor if he was advised on the Arias doctrine, as it contained a similar legal principle. 

“I asked if you were advised on the Arias doctrine because it lays out the rule that heads of offices are permitted to rely, on good faith, on their subordinates for their action, processing, recommendations,” Lacson said.

Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo urged Mayor Duterte to investigate the city staff and administrator who allowed the contracts between Gencorp and the city government. 

Mayor Duterte, however, dismissed Tulfo’s manifestation, saying, “as long as my sister’s name, the Vice President’s name, was not on the contract, then there’s nothing.”

Outside the courtroom, the prosecution spokespersons said they found the mayor’s insistence that he knew nothing about the Gencorp deals, and that these were aboveboard, difficult to believe.

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV also offered a contrasting view, warning of the implications of allowing mayors to rely entirely on delegated authority when transactions involve their relatives.

Trillanes, who attended the trial in case he would be called as a prosecution witness on the explained wealth case against the Vice President, was initially hesitant to respond to reporters’ questions in a chance interview during a break in the trial.

When pressed to comment on Mayor Baste’s appearance at the trial, Trillanes finally said: “Siguro heto lang. I’ll give you this. Kung puwede ‘yung sinasabi niya, lahat ng mayor sa Pilipinas puwedeng makipagkontrata sa kapatid nila. They will just feign ignorance. So think about that. ‘Yun ang implication dito.“

(Okay, it’s like this. I’ll give you this. If what he says is allowed, all the mayors in the Philippines can sign contracts with their siblings. They will just feign ignorance. So think about that. That’s the implication here.)