Who are LandBank Davao's Eunice Sumatra, Raquel Dela Cerna?

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The House prosecution panel on Tuesday presented several bank representatives as witnesses as the Senate impeachment court continued hearing the allegations of unexplained wealth against Vice President Sara Duterte.

On Day 34 of the trial, the prosecution presented officials from two LandBank branches in Davao —Eunice Sumatra, head of LandBank’s San Pedro branch and Raquel Dela Cerna, manager of LandBank Davao Magsaysay Branch

Sumatra said that while she oversees the branch operations, her role is focused more on marketing.

“As branch head, I oversee the operations of the branch. But most of my responsibility would be marketing in nature, because I have my branch operations officer, who will be directly involved in day-to-day operation of the branch,” she said.

“As a branch manager, I see to it that all the procedures are properly executed and internal control is observed,” she added.

Sumatra said that she submitted the required bank documents from her branch. Among them are the movement of payroll and withdrawal slips.

“We gathered the transaction documents and have it authenticated by me, and submit it to our head office for submission here,” she said.

"I only certified, I only signed the documents doon nangyari ang transaction sa San Pedro, Davao branch. Mayroong mga withdrawal slips na ibang branch ang nag-certify," Sumatra added.

(I only certified; I only signed the documents for the transaction that happened at the San Pedro, Davao branch. There are withdrawal slips that were certified by a different branch.)

Likewise, Raquel Dela Cerna, manager of LandBank Davao Magsaysay Branch, said that her role is also more on the marketing side.

“However, much of my work is on the marketing side. We have a branch operations officer and branch service officer, who have direct supervision of all the daily transactions of the branch,” she said.

But Dela Cerna confirmed that Duterte and Carpio indeed have bank accounts with them.

“We had two accounts of VP Sara, which are now closed. And one of Atty. Manases Carpio,” she said, noting that Carpio’s account is still active.

In discussing Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment, the Senate impeachment court is also looking into the covered and suspicious transactions recorded under the bank accounts of Duterte and her spouse, Manases Carpio.

The prosecution believes that Duterte and Carpio maintain at least 30 active bank accounts across eight banks.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) earlier disclosed that at least P4.4 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions were recorded under the bank accounts of the couple.

“Kilalanin nila at patunayan ang mga bank records na ang bangko mismo ang nag-sumite sa hukuman na ito, bilang pagsunod siyempre sa subpoena,” said House private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim Alih.

(They will identify and authenticate the bank records submitted directly to this court by the bank itself, naturally in compliance with the subpoena.) —LDF, GMA News