Defense to call witness on inday’s Davao income

The camp of Vice President Sara Duterte confirmed that it will present a witness to address the issues about their client’s receipt of an income from the Davao City local government from 2023.

Defense lawyer Michael Poa made a manifestation about the witness before the Senate impeachment court as Duterte’s alleged income from Davao were again raised in the proceedings.

“If I may, your honor, with all due respect… I will say that we will address this issue because we know this will make headlines,” Poa said.

“We will assure this court that we will address this issue and face this head-on and give you a perfectly reasonable explanation during our presentation for everything,” he added.

Poa said their witness, whom he did not name, will be presented when it’s their turn to present evidence, and that the testimony will be supported by relevant records and documents.

Tulfo’s question

The lawyer made the statement after Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo questioned why no members of Duterte’s counsel advised her on Article VII, Section 13 of the Constitution which prohibits officials from engaging in business during their tenure.

Building on his point, Tulfo argued that the Vice President’s lawyers may have known about the issue but chose to ignore it, believing they were “untouchable,” even by the law.