Senate Court Orders COA Employee, 2 Others to Testify in Sara Duterte Impeachment Trial

The Senate impeachment court on Wednesday ordered Commission on Audit (COA) employee Bresilio Sabaldan and two others to testify in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte from September 7 to 9. In his order, Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero said the court had granted the subpoena request filed by lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro of Batangas. The subpoena also covers former Department of Education (DepEd) Assistant Secretary Sunshine Cherry Fajarda and Police Major Jovelyn Magay. Luistro said the prosecution intends to present Sabaldan, Fajarda and Magay as witnesses next week, along with Fajarda’s husband, former DepEd special disbursing officer Eduard Fajarda, and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) official Marizza Grande. Luistro also said Magay and Sabaldan were among the reserve witnesses identified by the prosecution in its pretrial brief, or court submission listing its witnesses and the purpose of their testimonies. Luistro, however, said the prosecution may decide not to present Eduard Fajarda as a witness if the defense agrees to certain stipulations regarding his role in the disbursement of DepEd’s confidential funds. Escudero said the prosecution should submit the proposed stipulations in writing for the defense team’s review. The prosecution is currently presenting its evidence on Article 1 of the impeachment complaint, which alleges that Duterte committed an impeachable offense through the misuse, misappropriation and irregular liquidation of P612.5 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd when she was still education secretary.— MCG, GMA News