MANILA, Philippines — The Senate impeachment court has completed its comparison of acknowledgment receipts (ARs) submitted by the prosecution and defense as proceedings continued into Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds.
The comparison was conducted by the clerk of court following a dispute that emerged during the prosecution’s presentation of state auditor Xylene Mae del Campo, who was asked to authenticate nearly 5,000 acknowledgment receipts.
Presiding officer and Senator-judge Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the court’s review found 3,616 ARs that matched between the two sides.
Of the common receipts, 2,666 were attributed to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) while 950 were from the Department of Education (DepEd), where Duterte previously served as secretary.
However, the court also found a significant number of documents presented by the prosecution that had no corresponding copies from the defense.
“We note, however, that out of the 4,492 ARs of the prosecution, 876 have no counterpart ARs from the respondent,” Escudero said during the trial.
The Senate court will provide both parties and the senator-judges with the clerk of court’s findings for their information and reference.
The document comparison became necessary after the defense declined to stipulate on the voluminous receipts presented by the prosecution.
With no agreement between the two sides on the authenticity and existence of the documents, the impeachment court stepped in and ordered the comparison of the prosecution’s copies with those held by the defense.
The acknowledgment receipts are expected to be significant to the prosecution’s effort to establish its allegations involving the use of confidential funds under Duterte’s watch.
The issue also highlights the challenge faced by the impeachment court in dealing with thousands of financial documents that must be authenticated and properly matched before they can be considered in the proceedings.
The Senate is sitting as an impeachment court to hear the charges against Duterte, with Escudero presiding over the proceedings and senators acting as judges.
The dispute over the receipts came as the prosecution continued presenting evidence intended to support its allegations concerning the Vice President’s handling of confidential funds.
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