‘Wasak ang prosekusyon’: Panelo says double compensation issue vs Duterte disproved despite questions on witness credibility

MANILA — Davao City accountant Vingelin Bajan was able to disprove allegations that Vice President Sara Duterte received double compensation in 2023 despite questions about her credibility has a witness, the second in command’s spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Bajan told the Senate impeachment court that the P64,000 that Duterte declared as additional income in her 2023 statements of assets, liabilities and net worth was what Davao City owed the vice president due to the late remittance of her salary increase for 2020 and 2021 when she was still working as a local chief executive.

But Bajan’s credibility was questioned by several senator judges after she seemingly hesitated to answer questions about her partnership with an accounting firm, which now handles the accounts of second gentleman Manases Carpio’s businesses.

“Ang history ni city accountant for this firm that turns out to be the auditor for these other businesses linked to the Duterte’s doesn’t change the fact na itong P60,000 na binayad noong 2023, these were salary differentials,” Duterte spokesperson Paolo Panelo told reporters.

“It’s 60,000, it’s documented in her SALN. That’s the only reason why the prosecution knows about it so hindi itinago. Legal ang pagbayad… Kumpleto naman sa dokumento, hindi naman na-challenge,” he ssaid.

“Feeling ko wasak pa din ang prosekusyon. I still stand by it.”

Vice President Duterte’s defense team was not privy to Bajan’s previous connections to the accounting firm, which appears in the registration documents of several businesses linked to the second in command, defense spokesperson Michael Poa said in a separate press conference.


“We do not prep them. Meaning kung mayroon man kaming communication, it’s just the scope,” he said.

“Sa mga ties, we did not know about that… We just really have to determine kung ano ba ang issue ng testimony,” he said.

After much prodding from the prosecution and senator judges, Bajan had told the impeachment chamber that Thelma Ciudadano — one of the founders of the firm — was her teacher in college and eventually recruited her to join the company in the early 2000s.

Bajan served as a partner of the Ampil, Elises and Ciudadano and Co. from 2003 to 2015, while she was also working in the Davao City Hall as a record keeper.

She was removed from the accounting firm’s list of officials in 2015 or a year before she was appointed as acting city accountant of Davao City by then-Mayor Sara Duterte.

In 2019, former President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Ciudadano as the vice chairperson of the Professional Regulatory Board for Accountancy.


“While i think the focus should be on the documents, testimony… I have no qualms about testing the credibility of the witnesses,” he said.


“We do not want to be accused of coaching or tampering with witnesses,” he said.

Meantime, after senator judge Raffy Tulfo’s urged the defense to summon the vice president to answer alleged discrepancies in her SALN, Panelo said that it is better off to hear testimonies from other witnesses.

“Hindi ba mas maganda na ang prinepresent ng defense ay mga third party na hindi self-serving, kung hindi documents ang prinipreserve na evidence kasi kung mismong ang nagprepare nhg SALN ang nagtestify, eh di self serving yun?” he said.

“But here we have witnesses presented by the defense that are testifying based on actual evidence, some of which were stipulated on as authentic by the prosecution,” he said.

Poa earlier said that the defense has its own strategy regarding the matter and has neither confirmed nor denied if Duterte is slated to appear in her own trial as a witness.