The House prosecution panel warned that Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s continued unwillingness to personally answer questions under oath regarding her confidential funds will be interpreted as an effort to avoid public scrutiny, though the ultimate judgment on her decision rests with the Senate Impeachment Court.
Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, serving as spokesperson for the House prosecutors, emphasized that by declining to take the witness stand, the Vice President forfeits a direct opportunity to address growing questions surrounding the disbursements before the Filipino people.
“That it’s a, ano, it’s evading, no, evading accountability. Evading ‘yung pagkakataon na siya ay mag-explain sa ating taong-bayan,” Adiong stated in an interview.
The prosecution announced its intention to call Duterte directly to testify after multiple witnesses involved in processing and documenting the confidential allocations repeatedly conceded during proceedings that they lacked personal knowledge of how the money was ultimately spent.
“Now para po sa amin, it only means one thing: that she does not even want to explain to the public what happened to the confidential funds, which basically hindi masagot ‘yung lahat ng katanungan, and which basically even strengthens our own allegation na since yung accountability sa kanya at hindi niya ma-explain, talagang merong intensyon na paglaruan ang pera ng taong bayan,” Adiong argued.
Duterte’s defense counsel has consistently maintained that the Vice President is fully participating in the trial through her legal team. Her lawyers have invoked the constitutional guarantee against self-incrimination to oppose the prosecution’s effort to compel her direct appearance.
Adiong acknowledged that whether the Vice President can legally decline to take the stand, and how such an absence should be interpreted, are legal evaluations reserved strictly for the senator-judges presiding over the impeachment trial.
“Pero for the court, may sarili ho silang appreciation diyan, no, and we don’t want to preempt the court on how they will, ano, how they will arrive into their own judgement base,” Adiong clarified.
Under Article I of the impeachment complaint, Duterte is accused of the misuse, misappropriation, and irregular liquidation of P612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education during her time as education chief.
House prosecutors maintain that while testimony from former agency officials established the paper trail of how cash was withdrawn and transferred, it failed to resolve the core issue of how those confidential funds were actually spent once they left the custody of special disbursing officers.
For the House prosecution panel, Duterte’s willingness to personally confront those core issues remains central to determining her ultimate accountability for the public resources entrusted to her former offices.