MANILA — The House prosecution panel expects to present the largest number of witnesses in relation to the alleged misuse of PHP612.5 million in confidential funds involving Vice President Sara Duterte, House lead prosecutor and Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro said Tuesday.

In a report, it said that Luistro said the volume of documents involved in the confidential funds case requires multiple witnesses to authenticate records during the impeachment proceedings.

“It is the confidential fund…because of course we know that confidential fund is very voluminous and each piece of document needs to be identified by oral testimony of witnesses,” Luistro said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

“‘Pag maraming documents, marami din witnesses,” she added.

(Whenever there are voluminous documents, there are many witnesses.)

During hearings before the House Committee on Justice, the Commission on Audit (COA) upheld notices of disallowance covering PHP73 million in confidential fund disbursements of the Office of the Vice President from December 21 to 31, 2022, as well as PHP375 million in additional confidential fund use.

COA intelligence and confidential funds audit officer-in-charge Gloria Camora told lawmakers that the expenditures did not comply with the required joint circular, which mandates documentary evidence of payment.

“It means that they did not comply with the joint circular. What is required under the joint circular is documentary evidence of payment,” Camora said.

Officials from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) also testified that fictitious names appeared in documents supporting payments, while National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) representatives said signatures in the records appeared to have been produced by only a few individuals.

Luistro said preparation for the impeachment trial remains ongoing but incomplete.

“Preparation is always never enough because there is always room for increasing the preparation that you already have,” she said.

The Articles of Impeachment approved by the House include allegations of culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes.

The charges include alleged misuse and irregular liquidation of PHP500 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and PHP112.5 million from the Department of Education, alleged unexplained wealth, failure to properly disclose assets in SALN filings from 2022 to 2024, failure to divest business interests during her tenure, alleged bribery of DepEd officials, and alleged grave threats and incitement of sedition.

The articles also include accusations of contracting for the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Duterte has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the names in confidential fund documents were aliases used in intelligence operations and that no misuse occurred.