2 ex-LBP execs, House archives chief to testify on VP confidential funds

MANILA, Philippines – Two former Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) branch managers and the House legislative archives chief will be the first three witnesses to testify on Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of confidential funds during Duterte’s impeachment trial.

After withdrawing several witnesses for the impeachment article IV, referring to the vice president’s alleged grave threats, leaving only one witness left to testify, House prosecution lead counsel Rep. Gerville Luistro announced the panel’s first set of witnesses for the impeachment article I.

These are Marivic Pareja, Chief of Legislative Archives and Museum Management Service of the House of Representatives; Violeta Constantino, former branch manager of LBP Shaw boulevard branch; and Nenita Camposano, former branch manager of LBP Department of Education (DepEd) branch.

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READ: Duterte impeachment: Defense, prosecution clash on bank, tax secrecy

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The three will be examined starting July 22, Wednesday, when the impeachment court will begin to tackle impeachment Article I.

Article I refers to Duterte’s alleged misuse of P612.5 million in confidential funds – specifically, P500 million in the Office of the Vice President and P112.5 million in DepEd when she was secretary.

Pareja was previously subpoenaed by the House justice panel during its hearing on the impeachment complaint against the vice president to present records on nine envelopes supposedly received by Former Education Undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado from the vice president’s former special disbursing officer (SDO) Edward Fajarda.

Meanwhile, the LBP Shaw branch is where Office of the Vice President SDO Gina Acosta supposedly made four withdrawals amounting to P125 million between December 2022 and September 2023.

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Former branch operations officer of the said LBP branch, Jean Abaya, said before the House panel investigating Duterte’s confidential funds that Acosta carried money in three or four gym bags containing P25 to P30 million each.

Camposano, also previously told the same House panel that Fajarda withdrew P32.5 million each in three quarterly transactions in 2023 from the LBP DepEd branch. /mr

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