Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial: OVP's P500M cash withdrawals 'unusual,' says ex-Landbank manager

During the impeachment trial of Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, former Landbank department manager Violeta Constantino testified that the Office of the Vice President's (OVP) cash withdrawals totaling P500 million were "unusual." Constantino, a witness presented by the House prosecution panel, was referring to four checks of P125 million each, which were encashed by OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta. Senator-Judge Erwin Tulfo asked if such transactions by a government agency were considered normal, and if Constantino—who worked in state-run LandBank for 32 years—had ever seen other agencies make similar transactions. "Wala po. Unusual po ito," Constantino answered. Senator Pia Cayetano's social media post featuring a spliced video of Akbayan party-list Representative Chel Diokno speaking on the merits of opening the bank account records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband was misleading and violated the senator's oath of impartiality as senator-judge in the impeachment trial, the House prosecution team said Wednesday. In a message to GMA News Online, House prosecutor Leila de Lima said, "It is the Prosecutors' collective position that the conduct of Senator Pia Cayetano in so posting such spliced and misleading video was inappropriate and violative of her oath of impartiality as a Senator-Judge." "With all due respect to our Senator-Judges, we in the House Prosecution hope that the posting of spliced videos should be avoided so as not to mislead the public. Maganda na laging maisama 'yung buong konteksto ng mga talakayan para magabayan at maliwanagan ang taumbayan sa mga nangyayari sa paglilitis," De Lima added. The Senate impeachment court on Wednesday decided to cut the opening remarks of House prosecutor and ML party-list Representative Leila de Lima on why Vice President Sara Duterte should be should be convicted of impeachable offenses over misuse of hundreds of millions of confidential funds, saying it should be the witnesses who will testify on these matters. Senate impeachment court Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero made the ruling after repeated objections from the part of the defense and even after Escudero cautioned De Lima against making statements that are conclusions of fact and law. Prior to being cut short, De Lima was saying in Filipino, “Kapag ang isang impeachable officer, tulad ng Pangalawang Pangulo, ay inabuso ang kapangyarihan sa paraang sumisira sa accountability o sumusuway sa pananagutan, dapat pa ba siyang pagkatiwalaan? Dapat pa ba syang manatili sa pwesto? Source: GMA News Philippines