Barbers: VP Sara's defense team unlikely to overturn prosecution's evidence

Make this your preferred source to get more updates from this publisher on Google.

The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte is unlikely to overturn the bank records and her other declarations under oath that the prosecution presented as evidence against her during the trial, House prosecution panel spokesperson Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said Wednesday.

Barbers cited the financial records of the Vice President and her husband, including Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, bank transaction and bank deposit records, insurance payment records, income tax returns, and corporate records of their business interests, which financial forensic expert Atty. Alex Cabrera reviewed.

“These are documents, sworn declarations by no less than the Vice President, as well as records submitted to the different government agencies such as ITRs (income tax returns) and bank records. Bank records will never lie,” he said in a press conference.

“I don't think the banks will deny the existence of outstanding balances of the Vice President that they reported before the impeachment court. We're thinking how the defense will controvert the evidence presented by the prosecution, and I personally believe they don't have evidence to controvert ours," he added.

Aside from bank records, Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura also testified before the Senate impeachment court that P4.4 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions were recorded under the bank accounts owned by the Vice President and her husband.

“Mabigat ang ebidensya at napakahirap pasinungalingan o pabulaanan itong mga ebidensyang ito. And so again, I'd like to say it's going to be difficult for the defense to dispute or probably even rebut the evidence we have presented,” Barbers added.

(Plain denials won’t work on these documents.)

The Vice President’s non-divestment in businesses where she or her husband has an interest, Barbers said, is an offense just as grave as the undeclared assets.

He cited the following business interests of the Vice President as declared in her joint SALNs with her husband since she became Vice President in 2022:

• Metro City Chow Foods Corp., formerly City Hall King Chow Foods Corp. as stated in her 2023, 2024, and 2025 SALNs
• Gencorp Industries Inc. formerly Timesquare Bee Foods Corp. and Great Jolly Times Food, as stated in her 2024 and 2025 SALNs
• Davao New Royal Taipan Corp. (formerly Davao Emerging Taipans Corporation), as stated in her 2022 and 2023 SALNs
• Timesquare Bee Foods Corp. (formerly Great Joly Times Foods Corp.), as stated in her 2022 and 2023 SALNs
• Tapang At Malasakit Alliançe for the Philippines, Inc., as stated in her 2022 and 2023 SALNs

“Kapag mismo ang may akda [ng iyong] SALN., hindi mo maaaring balewalain lamang. Kapag Bise Presidente ka, hindi pwedeng 'yung isang kamay mo ay namamahala sa gobyerno, habang 'yung kabilang kamay ay namamahala naman sa negosyo,” Barbers said.

(If it is your SALN declaration, it is something that we cannot ignore. As the Vice President, you cannot be a public official on one hand and a businesswoman on the other.)

Barbers said that GenCorp. Industries Inc. winning P35 million in government contracts with the Davao City local government headed by the Vice President’s brother, Mayor Sebastian Duterte, is a textbook case of conflict of interest.

“Based on the opinion of Atty. Cabrera, if the Vice President was listed as one of the shareholders of GenCorp, it would not win government contracts. Let us remember that GenCorp.’s sales in 2021 were P28 million and it climbed to P300 million in 2022, the year that she became Vice President. By 2025, GenCorp’s sales already reached P520 million, and it bought P150 million worth of equipment when it only had P1.25 million capital,” he said.

“Who owns GenCorp and where is its huge sales coming from? If that is not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what it is,” he added.

The impeachment trial of the Vice President resumes on November 9.

GMA News Online reached out to the camp of Duterte for comment and will publish it once available.

The camp of Vice President Duterte earlier objected to the prosecution’s offer of evidence by arguing that these are inadmissible because the documents were neither cited in the Articles of Impeachment nor attached to the original complaints, and/or that these lacked evidentiary support or testimony from a competent witness.—AOL, GMA News