PH
MANILA, Philippines — The House prosecution panel in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte has questioned the credibility of the witnesses presented by the defense team, saying their personal and professional ties to her family raise doubts about their impartiality.
“All of them are biased, that’s why their credibility was tested in court,” House prosecution spokesman Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said in an interview over Bilyonaryo News Channel.
He said many of the defense witnesses were either former government appointees, business associates or longtime friends of Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio.
Among those he was referring to were Davao City Assessor Jaime Adalin, lawyers Suzette Balucanag-Punay and Anel Martin Antero, and Chadwin Parian.
Adalin, who served under then Davao City mayor Duterte, testified about a property registered under Carpio that the prosecution had questioned as allegedly undeclared.
Punay, the in-house counsel of GenCorp Industries Inc. and Metro City Chow Foods Corp., testified about Duterte’s business interests and monthly payments she received from GenCorp’s Times Square branch.
Antero, a longtime friend of Duterte, appeared before the impeachment court to explain a P205,000 dinner in Japan, while Parian, a friend of Carpio, testified about a P256,882 Nike purchase in Malaysia.
Adiong observed that the backgrounds of the defense witnesses were very much different from the prosecution’s witnesses, which included government officials and custodians of official financial and corporate records.
He said those officials testified primarily based on documents submitted to their agencies rather than on personal relationships with the Vice President.
He added that some defense witnesses appeared evasive when confronted with difficult questions from senator-judges, invoking ignorance or forgetfulness.
“When they are hard-pressed with questions by the senators, their sanctuary to evade these are ‘I don’t know, I can’t recall, I can’t remember,’” he said.
Adiong maintained that witnesses should answer questions candidly and transparently rather than selectively disclose only information favorable to the defense.
House Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Jude Acidre said senators should examine the relationship of each witness to the parties while assessing how their testimony compares with the documents presented by government agencies and financial institutions.
“If we will compare the witnesses of the prosecution and the defense, we can see that the ones who will not benefit from their testimony, have no personal interest or connection to the one in trial are more credible,” he said.
The defense began presenting its evidence on Nov. 9 to challenge the prosecution’s findings of at least P817.87 million in Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth.
The Senate impeachment court is scheduled to resume hearings on Nov. 19 and 20.
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Date posted: 2026-11-16T00:00:00+08:00