The 32nd day of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte was expected to be the longest day of the proceedings, with four witnesses, including former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, scheduled to take the stand.
It turned out to be a short one after the prosecution dropped Trillanes as its witness.
Trillanes was expected to be presented as a witness for the prosecution before Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), but the prosecution announced the former senator would no longer take the witness stand.
Register of Deeds IV, Kathy Florence Baldonado of Davao City, and acting Samal Register of Deeds Marco Pineda testified that the P6 million and P3 million worth of properties acquired by the Vice President’s husband in 2024 and 2018, respectively, were not listed in their joint SALN filed in 2025 and 2019.
Even Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero said that the P6 million Matina property was not listed in the Vice President’s 2025 joint SALN with her husband.
“The SALNs of the Vice President were proven to be authentic by the witness of the panel of prosecutors; the SALNs were marked by both parties and duly sworn to by the Vice President. Thus far, there is no evidence to show that the Vice President or the respondent has denied or is denying the SALN on record, not only before the Office of the Ombudsman but also before this Court,” Escudero added.
After the testimony of the two witnesses, House lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro dropped the biggest surprise of the trial by far by announcing that Trillanes won’t be serving as the prosecution’s witness anymore.
Luistro’s announcement even caught his fellow prosecutor, Rep. Keith Flores of Bukidnon, off guard.
“I was really surprised,” Flores said.
Trillanes later said that he was the one who asked Luistro to drop him off the list of witnesses so as to unburden the prosecution of pressure, the nature of which he did not specify.
Trillanes then said he will just hold a press conference on Friday, October 2, to shed light on what he knows about the impeachment case being leveled against the Vice President.
After Luistro’s announcement, the Senate impeachment court ordered officials from at least seven banks and seven financial firms to testify before the impeachment trial.
Luistro then proceeded to state that AMLC official Buenaventura will testify on the following:
- Summary of covered transaction reports (CTRs) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs) submitted by the Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to the Senate Impeachment court
- Summary of all CTRs and STRs involving 15 juridical persons from 2007 to 2025
- Summary of all CTRs and STRs involving Vice President Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio from 2022 to 2025
- Summary of CTRs and STRs involving the 15 juridical persons from 2022 to 2025
- Summary of CTRs and STRs pertaining to inward remittances to Calle 88 Foods Corporations from China and other countries
- Summary of CTRs and STRs involving insurance policies and investment-related transactions
Defense lawyer Sheila Sison objected, citing that they would need more time to prepare for their defense given that they only secured the copies of such summaries at around 11 a.m. on October 1.
Sison also said the disclosure of AMLC reports should not be allowed by the Senate impeachment court, citing confidentiality provided under Anti-Money Laundering and Bank Secrecy Laws.
House prosecutor Chel Diokno argued that impeachment proceedings are exempted from such provisions. He added that the Senate impeachment court already ruled in favor of presenting the AMLC records as evidence on July 20.
Section 8A of the Anti-Money Laundering Law regulates unauthorized and arbitrary disclosures by AMLC personnel; such provision “does not constitutionally and cannot nullify the lawful subpoena powers of the Senate sitting as an impeachment court.”
Escudero stood pat on the July 20 ruling but granted the defense’s request to reschedule the AMLC official’s testimony on Monday, October 5.
In a press conference after the trial, private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan said the House prosecution panel’s decision not to field former Trillanes was a caution for the best given that their evidence is already strong.
In addition, the prosecution panel disputed Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo’s observation that they screwed up and that one of their members was trying to look cute in questioning a witness, which resulted in online mockery of the prosecution.
“With all due respect to our senator-judges, I believe that all the members of the prosecution panel are working very hard to be able to present very well the evidence for the prosecution. I hope we will not be judged based on minor, nonsense, totally irrelevant observations,” Luistro said.
During the House justice panel hearings, AMLC Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura testified that bank transactions totaling P6.7 billion—classified as covered and suspicious—were recorded under the names of Duterte and Carpio.
Of the total amount, P3.7 billion was attributed to the Vice President, while P2.998 billion was linked to Carpio.
The report also identified P791 million in transactions as having undetermined inflows and outflows. —LDF, GMA News
