Prosecution sought to question bank official on Sara Duterte’s dollar accounts

MANILA — The prosecution in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Thursday expressed dismay over its inability to question a bank representative about the vice president’s alleged dollar accounts after the defense dropped the witness.

The testimony of lawyer Paul Roderick Ysmael from the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) would have been important in the trial given that Duterte owned accounts in the bank’s Doña Julia Vargas branch, House prosecutor Rep. Joel Chua said in a press conference.

“Kumbaga parang magbubukas ng Pandora’s box,” said Chua, who represents the third district of Manila. “Should they continue to pursue presenting the BPI official, it would open up a floodgate of questions that they could not possibly manage.”

Lawyer Benjamin Tolosa, a private prosecutor in the trail, said part the documents that were supposed to be authenticated by Ysmael involved alleged dollar accounts under Duterte.

“But unfortunately before we had the chance to cross-examine the witness about this dollar account, they dispensed with his testimony so we weren’t able to ask him questions about that anymore,” Tolosa said.

Earlier in the trial, defense counsel Michael Poa said they would no longer present Ysmael as a witness.

Ysamel was supposed to be presented to authenticate a letter written by Poa. However, Poa said he had already admitted before the court that he had written the letter.

“The only purpose for this witness was to authenticate my letter, Your Honor, and I believe the records would bear that during interpellation, I was already asked about the letter and I have admitted in open court that I wrote that letter,” Poa explained.

“So I think it would be in the interest of time that we just dispense with this witness since it is only for the purpose of authentication,” he said.

But private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim Ali told the court that the prosecution wanted to question the BPI official about bank records concerning Duterte’s alleged dollar accounts, which were also covered by the documents subpoenaed for the witness.

“This becomes an issue for us now, Your Honor, because there would be some questions that we want to ask on the basis of those records,” Alih said.

“We just wanted to highlight certain portions, Your Honor, particularly, say for example, one letter coming from the BPI where it confirmed that the vice president had dollar accounts,” he added.

Alih asked if the prosecution could make a manifestation “highlighting certain portions” of the subpoenaed documents.

However, presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero did not allow the prosecution to pursue the matter, saying it could raise its concerns after the defense had finished presenting its evidence and witnesses.

“This may be the proper subject matter to of any memoranda you will submit or closing remarks of the counsel, whoever will make those closing remarks, at the end of the presentation of evidence for both sides,” Escudero said.

“Finally, this can be the proper subject matter, too, of any rebuttal evidence you may wish to present after the respondent shall have rested, should you decide to do so but I’m afraid I cannot allow that at this point,” he added.

Escudero also said the court would not want to interfere with the defense’s decision on which witnesses to present.

Thursday’s proceedings instead focused on two witnesses who testified about credit card transactions made by Duterte’s husband, Manases Carpio. These transactions had earlier been highlighted by a forensic financial analyst presented by the prosecution.

For this week’s proceedings, the defense reduced its list of witnesses to four from the original 24 submitted to the court, which included several bank executives.

Rep. Chua viewed the defense’s decision to drop several witnesses as a sign that it was “panicking.”

“It only manifests how the defense is now panicking. They’re only trying to re-strategize their initial attempt to attack the case of the prosecution,” Chua said.

For its part, the defense is still looking at quashing “four to five” other points in the financial analyst Cabrera’s report, Poa said.

“We tried to make some points already through our witnesses this week, although obviously we want to supplement those points made,” he said.

“So it’s really hard to say, but we’ll try to cover everything that we can cover with the witnesses that we have remaining,” he said.

The defense would notify the court of its next witnesses via electronic mail over the weekend as the impeachment tribunal adjourns the trial until November 19 to make way for the country’s hosting of the ASEAN Leaders Summit in Manila next week.

Poa added it was difficult to assess if the trial can conclude before Christmas.

Duterte is facing allegations of amassing unexplained wealth, failing to fully disclose her assets and retaining business interests while serving as vice president.