Chua likens BPI witness to opening Pandora's box for defense

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The House prosecution panel at the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte speculated that the defense team decided against fielding a witness from the BPI because there was no guarantee that the testimony would favor her.

The defense decided to dispense with the testimony of Paul Roderick Ysmael, BPI senior vice president of, saying it was already established that Poa wrote a letter to the BPI about the bank accounts of the Vice President and her husband, Manases Carpio.

“We have to remember that the account in BPI Julia Vargas is a key issue. That is a huge account. If this is discussed, they would have to answer our questions about that. It is like opening a Pandora’s box for them,” House prosecutors Joel Chua of Manila said in a press conference, referring to the joint account Duterte has with her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, at the BPI bank on Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City.

“We’re not saying that there is more to be revealed, but they would open doors for further questions [had they made the BPI official stand as a defense witness], as we have seen in the way the prosecution conducted its cross-examination,” Chua added.

The defense also earlier dropped the fielding of 15 witnesses from other banks so as not to “waste the time of the court.”

“There are avoiding a floodgate of questions that they could not possibly manage,” Chua said.

He added that without bank officials as defense witnesses, the testimony of prosecution witness and financial forensic expert Alex Cabrera, as well as the bank officials who testified on the ending balances of the bank accounts of the Vice President and her husband, will remain uncontested.

“The bank accounts of the Duterte-Carpio couple already have hundreds of million [not declared in t their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. On top of that, if you will recall, the AMLC likewise presented several transactions, the covered and the suspicious transactions at P4.4 billion. So far, that’s undisputed,” Chua said.

“Those are indisputable facts because the bank managers themselves have testified on those bank accounts that bear or bore certain amounts,” House prosecution team spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong of Lanao del Sur added.

Private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa, Jr., for his part, said the defense did not question the authenticity of those bank accounts of the Duterte-Carpio couple when the prosecution presented them as evidence. — BM, GMA News

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