Kapunan: Defense’s initial witnesses do not answer Article II allegations
Private prosecutor Atty. Lorna Kapunan expressed belief that the witnesses that the lawyers of Vice President Sara Duterte intended to present in the coming week could fail in answering the allegations contained in Article II of the impeachment.
She pointed out that the defense had listed a total of 24 witnesses, none of whom from her view could disprove what the prosecution was attempting to prove.
“We were confused with the 24 witnesses that the defense listed. Because the things that I said should be answered by the Vice President, they would not be able to answer,” Kapunan said in a press briefing.
Kapunan explained that Duterte’s lawyers were tasked with explaining their client’s failure to declare her truthful income and the discrepancy between her bank accounts under her Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).
She further explained that there was a need for the defense to provide proof that Duterte was able to divest her business interests in several companies linked to her name through providing their own documents.
The veteran litigator particularly challenged their opposing party’s decision to request for subpoenas to be issued on 16 bank officers which were reportedly meant to prove that Duterte and her husband Atty. Manases “Mans” Carpio had sent letters to the institutions to inquire about their bank records.
The letters were reportedly sent through defense lawyer Atty. Michael Poa, despite no “special power of attorney” being contained in the documents as observed during the cross examination of the prosecution’s witnesses.
Kapunan argued that the defense could have been better utilized in an attempt to prove that the balances that were reported in the records transmitted to the Senate were untrue.
“That should have been the purpose of their bank officials. To say that the balance that was shown was incorrect, not simply to say that we sent a letter that was left unanswered,” she said.
No witness to counter P817.8-M claim
Another factor that Kapunan pinpointed was the seeming lack of a witness that could contest the claims of forensic accounting expert Atty. Alexander Cabrera who testified that Duterte and Carpio had hidden wealth amounting to P817.8 million from 2022 to 2025.
The lawyer made the assertion still based on the initial 24 witnesses, noting that none of the listed individuals could dispute the discrepancies that Cabrera found based on an analysis of the Vice President’s financial documents.
“The expert witness that we presented did not give opinions based on thin air...our expert gave an opinion based on records that were studied,” she said.
The records that forensic expert examined were documents that were duly subpoenaed by the impeachment court concerning Duterte’s assets and other business interests.
Cabrera pointed out during his testimony that the P817.8 million was a conservative estimate, noting that it was possible that the amount could have reached P1.5 billion with the use of a broader calculation.
The impeachment trial against the Vice President is set to resume on 9 November, where the defense is expected to begin its presentation of evidence related to Article II.