Week 7 of Vice President Sara Duterte's Impeachment Trial

Just like last week, week 7 of Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial was cut short due to inclement weather. Only one day of testimony was held. However, the prosecution was able to present another witness with even more testimony implicating VP Sara Duterte in the misuse of confidential funds. The twist this time is that the witness was VP Sara's former special disbursing officer.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1282022

The Senate impeachment court on Monday declared Gina Acosta, Vice President Sara Duterte’s former special disbursing officer at the Office of the Vice President, a hostile witness in the trial over the alleged misuse of confidential funds.

Presiding Officer Senator Francis Escudero granted the prosecution’s motion after questioning Acosta about her current position at the OVP and her employment relationship with Duterte.

Acosta confirmed that Duterte is her boss and that she currently holds a coterminous position as Vice Presidential Staff Officer VI.

Asked by Escudero whether she would lose her OVP post if Duterte were impeached or removed from office, Acosta replied: “I no longer have a job at the OVP.”

Escudero then formally declared Acosta a hostile witness, citing both her employment circumstances and the position she took in a counter-affidavit filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.

“In addition to the ground raised by Attorney (Amando Virgil) Ligutan that the witness has taken a position by virtue of her counter-affidavit filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, the court hereby declares the witness to be a hostile witness under and in accordance with Rule 132, Section 13,” Escudero ruled.

The ruling allows private prosecutor Ligutan to ask Acosta leading questions during her examination.

Escudero stressed, however, that misleading questions remain prohibited.

Acosta is the first witness formally declared hostile in Duterte’s impeachment trial.

Ligutan sought the declaration after presenting Acosta’s counter-affidavit in a complaint involving the alleged misuse of confidential funds.

He argued that Acosta’s position in the counter-affidavit was directly “adverse” to the prosecution’s case against Duterte.

According to Ligutan, Acosta maintained in her counter-affidavit that Duterte complied with the rules governing confidential funds and should not be held liable for their alleged misuse.

The defense opposed the prosecution’s motion, arguing that Acosta’s adverse interest should first be established through her examination and that the pendency of a complaint against her did not by itself make her hostile to the prosecution.

Escudero rejected the defense's argument and allowed Ligutan to proceed with Acosta as a hostile witness.

In offering her testimony, Ligutan said the prosecution intends to establish that Duterte instructed Acosta to encash PHP500 million in OVP confidential funds in four tranches from December 2022 to July 2023 and turn over the cash to an OVP security officer.

The prosecution also intends to establish that the PHP500 million was not properly liquidated and that its disbursement was riddled with violations of Joint Circular No. 2015-01, governing the use of confidential and intelligence funds.

These assertions remain part of the prosecution’s offer and are subject to Acosta’s testimony and the defense’s cross-examination.

The PHP500 million is part of the PHP612.5 million in confidential funds at the center of Article I of the impeachment complaint. The amount comprises PHP500 million released to the OVP and PHP112.5 million allocated to the Department of Education while Duterte was education secretary.

Being hostile means she does not agree with the prosecution's characterization of confidential funds as misuse. While she gave the same testimony back in 2024 she apparently had a hard time speaking while on the stand. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1282028

Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo on Monday questioned why former Office of the Vice President (OVP) special disbursing officer Gina Acosta appeared to have difficulty answering in Tagalog during Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial despite previously doing so before the House of Representatives.

Acosta, who handled cash advances involving the OVP’s confidential funds, was declared a hostile witness by the Senate impeachment court upon the request of the House prosecution. She opted to answer in Bisaya during her testimony.

“I don't understand why she seems to be having such difficulty speaking Tagalog here when, in fact, in Congress last November, she answered in Tagalog,” Tulfo said.

Tulfo presented a transcript of Acosta’s November 2024 House testimony, citing exchanges in which she answered questions in Tagalog and English on the handling of confidential funds.

Among the portions he cited were Acosta’s responses concerning incentive payments, her authority as special disbursing officer, and funds she said were returned to her by then Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group chief Col. Raymund Dante Lachica.

Tulfo also read an exchange involving the name “Piattos,” which figured in the House inquiry into acknowledgment receipts for confidential fund expenditures.

He asked the impeachment court to have Acosta answer in Tagalog, arguing that repeatedly translating questions and answers between Filipino and Bisaya could unnecessarily lengthen the trial.

“We could take a year here, Mr. President,” Tulfo said.

Tulfo maintained that Acosta’s previous congressional testimony showed she could understand and respond to questions in Tagalog.

“Mr. President, enough of this deception,” he said.

Senate presiding officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero acknowledged Tulfo’s concern and directed prosecution lawyer Amando Ligutan to stick to one language when questioning Acosta instead of translating every question automatically.

“Point well taken. Atty. Ligutan, to abbreviate the proceedings, kindly choose one language: English or Filipino in asking the question. You don't have to translate each time unless the witness requests you to do so,” Escudero said.

“Preferably use Filipino, Atty. Ligutan, as I'm sure you are well versed with it as well pso Ms. Gina can understand it better,” he added.

The House prosecution panel also said they were puzzled by Acosta’s apparent difficulty speaking Filipino during her impeachment trial testimony despite having readily answered questions in the national language during a 2024 House inquiry.

In a press briefing, House prosecutor and San Juan City Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora said the prosecution noticed the contrast after Tulfo first raised the issue.

“We were wondering about the difficulty earlier. During the hearing in Congress, she understands questions in English, Filipino. And she would answer in mixed English, Filipino, and Bisaya,” she said.

Zamora, however, stopped short of attributing any motive to Acosta.

“But of course, I don’t want to say that there was some malice involved,” she said, noting that Acosta made a greater effort to answer in Filipino after Tulfo’s intervention.

“I think that made the witness try a little harder pagkatapos mag-manifest ni (after the manifestation of) Sen. Erwin Tulfo,” Zamora said.

Former Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, House impeachment adviser and spokesperson, gave Acosta the benefit of the doubt saying she may simply have been nervous because she was testifying in an impeachment trial.

“She knows how to speak Tagalog. The transcript of the Committee on Good Government shows that she can reply, respond to a question either in English or in Tagalog,” Barbers said.

“She might be a little nervous. We will give her that benefit of the doubt, so to speak,” he added.

Barbers also said Acosta’s Cebuano responses did not pose a major problem because Ligutan could understand and translate them.

Acosta remains an aide at the Office of the Vice President but formerly served as Duterte’s special disbursing officer, handling PHP500 million in OVP confidential funds in 2022 and 2023.

She was declared a hostile prosecution witness earlier Monday as prosecutors began questioning her on the handling and liquidation of the funds.

While the prosecution has decided to give Acotsa the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to nerves the explanation that she was playing dumb to slow the trial and protect her former boss should not be dismissed.

Acosta's testimony boils down to one thing. Vice President Sara Duterte ordered her to cash to 125 million pesos and deliver it to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica. The money was cellophane wrapped in 1 million peso bundles by the bank and placed in four large bags by Acosta. 

https://mb.com.ph/2026/08/17/damning-testimony-acosta-details-how-p125m-confidential-funds-were-encashed-given-to-lachica

Former Office of the Vice President (OVP) special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta told the Senate impeachment court Monday, Aug. 17 how she was able to encash P125 million in confidential funds, which she then released to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica upon the instructions of respondent Vice President Sara Duterte.

Acosta's testimony as a hostile witness--given during day 16 of the Senate impeachment trial--allowed House prosecutors to trace the physical movement of the money from the preparation of the OVP documents to its encashment at Land Bank’s Shaw Boulevard branch and eventual turnover to Lachica.

Acosta, currently vice presidential staff officer VI, testified that she packed the money into four traveling bags and brought it to the OVP. These were then given to Lachica, then-chief of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group (VPSPG).

After private prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan presented the disbursement voucher and check covering the fourth-quarter 2022 confidential funds, Acosta confirmed that the voucher’s processing, preparation and release of the check, and encashment all happened on Dec. 20, 2022.

Ligutan asked whether or not completing all these steps on the same day showed that the transaction had been fast-tracked. However, Acosta rejected such characterization.

"The disbursement was not rushed. It went through our regular office process, Your Honor," she said. 

According to Acosta, she reached the bank betwen 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. after the OVP cash division informed her that the check was ready for encashment. She confirmed that Land Bank had been notified in advance to prepare the P125 million.

Presiding officer Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero later sustained the defense’s objection when Ligutan tried to establish that the notice necessarily preceded approval of the voucher and preparation of the check.

"It was placed in a box. Bundled, each bundle worth P1 million, wrapped in sealed cellophane," Acosta further testified regarding the encashment.

She told the court that she counted 125 sealed bundles but did not open the plastic wrapping. She also did not count the P1,000 bills individually.

The money was then transferred from the boxes into four black, oblong-shaped traveling bags. "I was the one, Your Honor, who placed the money in the bag. "Acosta admitted.

Ligutan used physical mock-ups and an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated simulated image to illustrate the volume of P125 million in cash but defense counsel Lindon Miguel Bacquel questioned whether the representations had adequate factual basis.

The court overruled an initial objection and later noted the defense’s continuing objection to the AI-generated visuals.

Over at the OVP, two VPSPG personnel helped remove the bags from a vehicle after seeing that Acosta could not lift one herself. The bags were placed on a trolley, taken through a service elevator and brought to an extension office.

Upon Duterte’s instructions, Acosta said she called Lachica after encashing the check to inform him that the funds were ready.

Prosecutors highlighted in a press conference after the hearing that Acosta's testimony directly implicated Duterte to the turnover of P125 million in confidential funds to Lachica.

"It became clear earlier that the statements of the Landbank managers we first heard were confirmed — that these bundles of cash were received by [SDO], Gina Acosta," private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr. said.

The prosecution’s position is that Lachica had no authority to receive and disburse the confidential funds since he was not an organic employee. Worse, he was not the OVP's designated SDO.

Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, a solon-prosecutor said the moment produced a visible, audible reaction inside the trial venue.

"There was a palpable gasp when Ms. Gina Acosta pointed to the Vice President as the one who gave her instructions to hand over the P125 million to Mr. Lachica," Ridon said.

Ridon underscored that Acosta was an OVP official called as a hostile witness by the prosecution, and that she had a unique impact compared to earlier witnesses.

"This is not a Commission on Audit witness, not an National Bureau of Investigation witness, not a Philippine Statistics Authority witness. This is a hostile witness, the very person, the Vice President’s SDO, " he said. 

Prosecutors further argued that the testimony did more than show that the cash was released while Duterte headed the OVP. They said Acosta’s answer proved that the instruction to hand the money to Lachica came from the Vice President herself.

This, according to them, makes it harder to place responsibility solely on subordinate personnel who prepared, encashed, or carried the secret funds.

Because Col. Raymund Dante Lachica was not authorized by law to handle the money, the prosecution contends this is a blatant misuse of funds and a flouting of the law. The defense did not dispute Acosta's testimony but did take issue with an AI generated photo of 125 million pesos stacked on a pallet. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2286289/sara-duterte-camp-objects-to-ai-simulation-of-p125-m-cash

Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team on Monday said it objected to the prosecution’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to “simulate” what P125 million in cash looks like as it does not guarantee accuracy.

During the 16th day of Duterte’s impeachment trial, the House prosecution panel presented AI-generated images of P125 million in cash—one version bundled and the other bagged—during the direct examination of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) former special disbursing officer, Gina Acosta.

The prosecution presented the images to verify that Acosta personally picked up the same amount in confidential funds at a LandBank branch. 

But the defense team, through one of its counsel Lindon Bacquel, objected to the so-called “simulation,” pointing out that they were AI-generated.

"Because of course, we know that AI sometimes doesn’t really depict the true appearance of things," explained defense spokesperson Michael Poa in a press conference after the trial.

“… and usually, AI isn’t really accurate these days.,” he added.

This accuracy issue, according to Poa, is the defense’s main concern with the simulation, as they want to avoid an exaggerated visualization of the encashed amount in confidential funds.

Asked if the defense is now planning to raise a motion of sorts prohibiting the use of AI-generated photos, Poa responded: 

“No. We haven’t really spoken about it after this, so I don’t want to foreclose any possibility,” said Poa.

"But for now, our continuing objection to that has been noted," he added. 

Sure the AI simulation may not be 100% correct but it should not be that hard to calculate what 125 million pesos would look like. One would need 125 million pesos stacks and then one would need to calculate the height of each stack at 1,000 bills per stack. It's not going to be small. 

Two Senator-Judges have been absent from the proceedings since August 11th. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2286763/cayetano-legarda-still-absent-from-vp-trial

Where is Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano?

The senator was once again marked absent on Monday in both the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte and the plenary session, with no notice from his office.

This was confirmed by Senate secretary Renato Bantug, who, when asked whether Cayetano had submitted an explanation for his absence, told the Inquirer in a text message that there was “no communication from his office.” 

As of Monday afternoon, Cayetano’s office had yet to disclose the reason behind the senator’s absence.

Cayetano has been a no-show at the trial and the plenary sessions, both held from Mondays to Wednesdays, since Aug. 11.

According to his sister, Sen. Pia Cayetano, as well as Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Cayetano was absent the previous week because he was “not feeling well.”

Sen. Loren Legarda, meanwhile, is also out of sight at the Senate floor after once again extending her medical leave up to Aug. 19.

“Her office sent in a letter this morning. Medical leave from 17 to 19 August,” Bantug said in a text message to reporters.

Legarda has been absent from the impeachment trial and Senate sessions since Aug. 3, after leaving the country on Aug. 2 via Hong Kong, with France as her final destination. Her son, Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, also left the Philippines via Hong Kong on the same day.

The senator filed a medical leave with the Senate Secretariat first for the period Aug. 3 to 5, and then for Aug. 11 to 12.

Legarda and Leviste, along with former Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, are facing a preliminary investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman for graft and plunder involving alleged ghost solar projects worth more than P10 billion.

Ombudsman investigators said Legarda, Leviste, and Cusi “conspired to secure exclusive government rights over the country’s solar energy resources through legislative and regulatory actions … but many of the projects were never developed as promised.”

Legarda has denied the allegations, saying they were “utterly false and baseless,” and asked the public not to draw conclusions linking her travel to the allegations against her.

Her office, however, has yet to issue a new statement regarding the extension of her medical leave for this week.

"Not feeling well" is hardly an excuse. Cayetano has a duty which he is actively shirking. As for Legarda, well the ombudsman says her extensions for leave are becoming suspicious. 

As for Legarda, Clavano noted that the senator asked for an extension of her travel authority until Aug. 19. She first filed a medical leave in Aug. 3.

“Senator Loren Legarda, I believe, is in the third or fourth extension of her travel authority for medical reasons, which we have begun to find quite suspicious already,” Clavano said.

“To us, we want to err on the cautious side of things. We need to flag that already because they already have an ongoing case in the Ombudsman,” he said.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2287127/ombudsman-legardas-time-off-suspicious-son-seeks-2-month-leave

Senator Legarda has apparently travelled to France on medical leave.

Matibag said Legarda traveled to France through Hong Kong.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2282314/loren-legarda-extends-medical-leave-from-aug-11-to-12-bantug

There is no word on her medical condition or on Cayetano's medical condition. Hopefully they both regain their health and return to their duties.