Private prosecutor Atty. Lorna Kapunan said that Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte’s claim that he did not know that Vice President Sara Duterte had stakes in Gencorp Industries Incorporated was a failure, on his part, to practice “due diligence.”

“Part of your due diligence, it’s a matter of law. If you are a mayor or if you are head of a bid committee and there is a claim, a statement, there is bidding for a project, if he says he does not know then the answer there is he ought to know,” Kapunan told reporters at the Senate.

The comments of the veteran litigator served as an answer to a statement released by Baste on Monday wherein he confirmed that the Davao city local government unit had in fact made transactions with Gencorp amounting to P33.2 million.

He would note, however, that officials in his office were aware that Sara had any business interest in the company despite the numerous engagements between them.

“Neither the name Sara Zimmerman Duterte nor the surname ‘Duterte’ appears in any of the official documents, such as, among others, the Articles of Incorporation, submitted by GENCORP INDUSTRIES INC. across the 19 contracts and transactions in question,” Baste said.

The Davao City mayor further stated that such claims should be “duly supported with verified evidence and reliable documents” and urged the public to be wary of “orchestrated narratives” that were meant to serve political interests.

Kapunan, on the other hand, expressed that the clarification of Baste served more as a “confession” related to the issues it sought to prove through the presentation of evidence on Sara’s alleged unexplained wealth.

Asked to elaborate on her observation, the lawyer likened the statement to a penitent who was confessing to a priest.

“What do you do when you confess to the priest? You’re admitting your sins, right?” she said. “This is not only an admission, it is a confession.”

Further questioned about how the statements helped their case, Kapunan said that she would refrain from giving an “opinion” in observance of the impeachment court’s sub judice rule.

Last week, two members of the prosecution panel in Atty. Benjamin Tolosa and Rep. Terry Ridon were issued with show cause orders regarding alleged violations of the aforementioned ruling.

‘Smoking gun’ in the trial

An individual who is not covered by the restrictive ruling, however, is former congressman Robert Ace Barbers who serves as a spokesperson for the prosecution panel for the impeachment.

Expressing his opinion on the matter, Barbers said that Baste’s statement “could be tantamount to a smoking gun” given the fact that he had doubled their initial estimate that the contracts were only worth P15 million.

“We were anticipating that when he appears [to] the stand, our prosecutors would question him about all these deals entered into by this company called Gencorp,” the spokesperson said.

“We’re glad that the mayor corrected the figure. In fact, it doubled. Thanks to him because he revealed it,” he added.

House trial Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, meanwhile, noted that the revelation of the mayor further “vindicated” the need for his testimony in the ongoing trial at the Senate.

The Senate confirmed Tuesday that the subpoena for Baste’s appearance in the proceedings was already issued to his office.