September 28, 2026

PhilGEPS official Rendell P. Sopeña testified from an extract described in questioning as 49 GenCorp awards. He confirmed 15 entries awarded by Davao City and 33 by PhilHealth Region XI. When counsel described the remaining entry as awarded by OWWA Region XI, Sopeña corrected that it was awarded to OWWA by a procuring entity. He explained that procuring entities upload the award data and documents, while his office serves as the repository and does not oversee actual bidding or compliance.

Sopeña identified four Davao City entries as public bidding and the other 11 as small-value procurement in the PhilGEPS records. He described the Davao City total as approximately ₱34.216 million; his estimate for the small-value portion was rough.

Police Major Joericson H. Sangalang, PNP Firearms and Explosives Office records chief, testified that the office's records showed Type 5 licenses for both the Vice President and Atty. Carpio, with 22 firearms registered to her and 29 to him. He identified three of her rifles and one of his as Class A light weapons and described the certifications he brought as his source.

Sangalang put the two firearms lists' combined current market-survey amount above ₱7.2 million, specifying ₱2,184,550 for the Vice President's list and ₱5,035,820 for Atty. Carpio's. He said these were market-survey figures, while later questioning established that the office's system-generated certification did not record each firearm's production year or acquisition cost.

Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian declared a quorum of 15 senator-judges and recognized newly elected Presiding Officer Sen. Francis "Chiz" G. Escudero. Escudero dispensed with reading the September 22 and 23 journal and treated it as approved.

Before the witness resumed, the prosecution raised subpoena requests and proposed marking the earlier witness's documents as one continuously paginated exhibit. The chair deferred the subpoenas and noted the exhibit request.

The court heard Rep. Jose Manuel I. Diokno on the prosecution's request for admission, then defense counsel Atty. Sheila C. Sison on the objection and possible stipulations. The chair asked Diokno to submit the rejoinder and a written stipulation proposal and asked Sison for a written submission.

Atty. Roberto N. Batungbacal cross-examined Rendell P. Sopeña, who confirmed that he remained under his prior oath; the chair excused him after the parties and senator-judges finished their questions.

Police Major Joericson H. Sangalang was sworn before the lunch recess. After recess, Rep. Ysabel Maria J. Zamora offered his testimony about PNP Firearms and Explosives Office records, and the prosecution completed his presentation; the chair excused him.

After the witnesses were excused, the court addressed the next witness schedule and adjourned until 10 a.m. Tuesday, September 29.

The chair directed written submissions on the prosecution’s request for admission and the defense objection, with a ruling to follow.

During Sopeña's cross-examination, the chair overruled a prosecution objection to a question the witness could answer from his knowledge, while recording a continuing objection to that line of questioning and later directing defense counsel to move to another topic.

The presiding officer granted Mayor Sebastian Duterte's request to appear on September 29 and 30 under his existing subpoena; no replacement subpoena was required.

On the prosecution's motion, the chair recalled the subpoena for Atty. Gary Samonte, the PhilHealth witness.

After the defense stipulated to Sangalang's position and that his testimony concerned firearms licensed to the Vice President and her spouse in PNP records, the chair treated the prosecution's first two offered purposes as covered and allowed direct examination on the remaining purposes. He instructed counsel to shorten the presentation and allowed a challenged license question over a relevance objection.

The chair directed the clerk to issue subpoenas for Davao City Register of Deeds officials Atty. Cathy Florence M. Baldonado and Atty. Marco K. Pineda for September 30 and October 1–2, and AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Atty. Ronel Buenaventura for October 1–2. He directed service under the cited Rules of Court and the prosecution to tender applicable witness costs.

The chair adjourned the trial until 10 a.m. Tuesday, September 29, 2026.

Sen. Francis "Chiz" G. Escudero questioned PhilGEPS official Rendell Sopeña about the limits of his knowledge of uploaded procurement documents. Sopeña confirmed that procuring entities upload them, that he did not prepare them, and that PhilGEPS is a repository rather than an oversight or compliance office. Asked whether his office detects defects or alerts the uploading entity, he said it does neither and suggested irregularities are generally found in an audit. Escudero also observed that the Vice President's SALN described her as a GenCorp shareholder while an SEC witness had said the company's submitted records did not list her; he said the discrepancy remained to be reconciled. During Police Major Joericson Sangalang's testimony, Escudero asked about the firearms list and whether the defense would stipulate to it. Defense counsel said it had not received the list and disputed the witness's relevance. Escudero questioned the probative value of the firearms' estimated value against the Vice President's declared assets and suggested firearms need not be separately listed in a SALN; the prosecution cited guidelines it said required individual declaration, while the defense later disputed their applicability. Sangalang said his values came from a current market survey, not known acquisition prices, and that he could check records about the mode of transfer. At Escudero's request, he gave separate survey totals of ₱2,184,550 for the Vice President and ₱5,035,820 for her spouse; Escudero stressed these were not necessarily acquisition costs. When counsel raised gun-vault requirements, Escudero asked whether a locked room could count. Sangalang declined to speculate about the rules or an inspected vault but agreed such storage was possible.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros asked PhilGEPS official Rendell Sopeña whether an LGU could award a contract to a company in which the mayor's sibling had an interest, and whether PhilGEPS saw a possible procurement-law violation. He said his office manages the PhilGEPS system, relies on information entered by procuring entities, and could not assess the legality of that relationship. Hontiveros then asked how many Davao City contracts awarded to GenCorp had bypassed public bidding and their total value. The witness said 11 of 15 contracts used negotiated small-value procurement; after checking his figures, he put the 15-contract total at about ₱34.216 million and estimated the 11 contracts without public bidding at roughly ₱7 million to ₱8 million. Hontiveros restated that estimate, which the witness confirmed as an estimate.

Sen. Raffy T. Tulfo asked whether GenCorp could bid for Davao City contracts given Vice President Sara Duterte's stated interest in the company and her brother's role in the city government. Lead prosecutor Rep. Gerville R. Luistro argued that the relationship created a constitutional conflict of interest even if procurement law did not expressly cover it. Tulfo agreed with that concern, while the Presiding Officer cautioned that the Vice President's SALN declaration of an interest and the SEC witness's account of GenCorp's shareholder records still had to be reconciled. Later, Tulfo asked whether any of GenCorp's 15 contracts exceeded the ₱2 million threshold for small-value procurement. PhilGEPS witness Rendell P. Sopeña clarified that the four contracts above that amount went through public bidding and none of the 11 small-value contracts exceeded ₱2 million. Tulfo then asked which evidence should govern the apparent SALN–SEC discrepancy. The Presiding Officer said the parties must address the conflicting testimony with evidence later in the trial; he could not settle it then. Turning to Police Major Joericson H. Sangalang's firearms testimony, Tulfo argued that firearms could be declared as personal property in a SALN and, using his own ₱60,000-per-gun estimate, questioned the witness's relevance. The Presiding Officer said the court had already ruled on allowing the witness and would shorten the presentation; prosecutor Rep. Ysabel Maria J. Zamora said it would show that the guns were not all worth only ₱60,000 each. After the testimony, Tulfo proposed itemizing firearms in SALNs and revisiting limits on how many a private citizen may own, citing his concern about private armies. Sangalang answered that, for the license category he described, there was no numerical limit so long as the firearms remained registered.

Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian asked PhilGEPS official Rendell Sopeña what the system showed about GenCorp's Davao City awards: competing bids, contract prices, conflict-of-interest affidavits, and small-value procurements. Sopeña said the system depended on procuring entities' uploads; it showed the procurement mode, approved budget, and awarded amount, but not the number of competing bidders. He said price checking and review of legal compliance or conflict declarations were outside his office's repository function. In a later round, Gatchalian questioned Police Major Joericson H. Sangalang about using current prices for firearms that might have been bought years earlier. Sangalang said ordinary used firearms generally depreciate, while discontinued or antique firearms can gain value; he could not determine the value of every listed gun. He had no used-gun market survey or manufacture-year information, and said the system-generated record showed only model, kind, and caliber. Gatchalian concluded that the list could not establish the firearms' current actual value.

Sen. Imee Marcos asked PhilGEPS official Rendell Sopeña whether award notices identified who personally negotiated or took part in GenCorp transactions, or established Vice President Sara Duterte's corporate role or beneficial ownership on each transaction date. He said the PhilGEPS records did not show those facts and agreed that corporate records would be needed to establish her status for the relevant periods. Marcos also asked whether he personally knew if Duterte prepared or submitted GenCorp bids, negotiated its contracts, or received any part of a contract price. Sopeña said he had no personal knowledge of those matters.

Sen. Joel Villanueva questioned PhilGEPS witness Rendell P. Sopeña about whether its records could show competition for GenCorp awards, including how often GenCorp was the only responsive bidder or repeatedly won similar contracts from the same procuring entity. Sopeña said he had no complete sole-bidder list; details could appear in uploaded documents, but the electronic data he downloaded did not expose those patterns. Villanueva said frequency, similar products, timing, and competition could be relevant to transparency without making repeated awards automatically unlawful. Sopeña said the current system lacked flags for unusually repetitive awards and that such features were being developed. Villanueva then pressed how the government could verify bidder declarations, beneficial ownership, and potential relationships with procurement officials. Sopeña described a modernized PhilGEPS, its public data portal, and planned beneficial-ownership and detection features, but agreed that verification was lacking in this case. Finally, Villanueva asked whether similar small-value GenCorp awards had been split to avoid competitive-bidding thresholds. Sopeña said one notice had different line-item categories, similar catering titles had different publication and award dates, his records showed no such splitting, and the system was designed to disallow it.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo asked PhilGEPS official Rendell Sopeña why possible procurement problems had not been flagged during the contracts and urged his office to examine past projects rather than wait for requests. Sopeña said PhilGEPS was a data repository, had not been personally involved in the bidding, learned of the issue after a congressional subpoena, and had no oversight or retrospective review mandate; other agencies could request its procurement data. Before Police Major Joericson H. Sangalang testified, Tulfo asked how firearms evidence related to the Vice President's alleged hidden or unexplained wealth. The presiding officer said the prosecution appeared to offer it to establish ownership and value against the SALN, but that its precise purpose and admissibility could be assessed after the offer, when Tulfo could move accordingly. After the offer, Tulfo renewed his relevance concern and asked for a decision, observing that possession of many firearms alone did not establish unexplained wealth. The presiding officer invited Sen. Vicente C. Sotto III to explain a similar reservation, then explored narrowing the witness's testimony and allowed the examination to proceed; Tulfo's question itself was not a court ruling.

Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson offered an observation rather than a question. He said the defense's cross-examination appeared to pursue small technical doubts and could suggest a beyond-reasonable-doubt standard that, in his view, did not govern the impeachment trial. Stressing that he was not prejudging the case, he suggested the defense reconsider that approach because, to him, narrow technical points were not persuasive. The Presiding Officer acknowledged the manifestation and moved to the next senator-judge.

Sen. Vicente C. Sotto III asked whether the firearms listed by Police Major Joericson Sangalang were contained in the Vice President's SALN. Presiding Officer Escudero said that appeared to be the direction of the prosecution's evidence, although prosecutor Ysabel Zamora had not said so in her offer. Sotto observed that his own SALN has no separate entry labeled guns and that he ordinarily includes firearms under personal property. He left the question of the witness and evidence to the court; this exchange did not decide whether the Vice President's SALN properly disclosed the firearms.

Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri questioned the relevance and weight of the firearms evidence. He observed that senators who own firearms commonly report them under personal effects or personal property in their SALNs, and said he did not see a violation if the Vice President had done the same; he wanted the prosecution to present more consequential evidence. The chair then moved to another senator without a direct answer to Zubiri's observation. In a later round, Zubiri cited a figure from earlier firearms-law hearings that only 0.01% of registered firearms were used in crimes and asked Police Major Joericson Sangalang to confirm it. Sangalang asked to check before answering, and the record here contains no confirmation of that figure. Zubiri then argued that lawful firearm ownership is a regulated privilege, that a collector may own multiple firearms subject to permit and transport rules, and that the number owned alone does not establish wrongdoing. He proposed tightening firearm safekeeping rules so an owner could be liable when a gun left unsecured is used in a crime, while saying the court should move on to other evidence in this trial. Sangalang agreed only with his description of the Type 5 collector category; no one ruled on the proposed law change in this exchange.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano joined colleagues in questioning whether Police Major Joericson H. Sangalang's firearms testimony was material enough to justify the hearing time, but urged the prosecution and defense to agree on how to dispense with it. He cautioned against senator-judges limiting a party's evidence without a ruling that it was irrelevant. Later, Cayetano asked whether the firearm prices in Sangalang's certification reflected their 2023 or 2024 dates or current values. Sangalang answered that they were current prices. Cayetano observed that this comparison could be unfair to a SALN declaration if acquisition cost could be reported; the Presiding Officer accepted the qualification and directed the prosecutor to continue.

Rep. Jose Manuel ‘Chel’ I. Diokno urged the court to overrule the defense objection to the prosecution's request for admission concerning subpoenaed bank records. He argued that Rule 26 could apply suppletorily in impeachment proceedings and that acknowledging the records' existence and authenticity would narrow the issues without shifting the burden of proof or compelling testimony.

Rep. Diokno offered to withdraw the request for admission if the defense stipulated that the identified bank records exist, were produced under court subpoenas, and are genuine copies of the banks' records; he expressly left their contents, relevance, weight, and legal effect open to challenge.

Rep. Gerville ‘Jinky Bitrics’ R. Luistro objected when defense questions appeared to treat PhilGEPS postings as proof that actual procurement had been completed. She emphasized that Rendell P. Sopeña's knowledge came from the system rather than personal participation in bidding, and later characterized the Vice President's asserted connection to GenCorp and Davao City procurements as a conflict of interest.

Rep. Ysabel Maria J. Zamora offered Police Major Joericson H. Sangalang to establish firearms licensing and registration records for Vice President Sara Duterte and Atty. Manases Carpio, including a claimed combined market-survey value above ₱7 million. She argued that his office's certifications supported the figures and that firearms should be individually declared under the SALN guidelines she cited.

Atty. Sheila C. Sison opposed the request for admission on self-incrimination grounds, arguing that Rule 26's implied-admission mechanism could compel a testimonial admission even in a proceeding outside an ordinary criminal case. She said counsel needed time to review bank documents still being marked and proposed addressing stipulations when the prosecution offered the related evidence.

In cross-examination, Atty. Roberto N. Batungbacal pressed whether the entries described as GenCorp awards were publicly posted and which agencies made them. Sopeña confirmed 15 Davao City and 33 PhilHealth Region XI entries, but corrected counsel's characterization of the remaining OWWA entry: it was awarded to OWWA by a procuring entity. He said he had no personal knowledge of Davao City's role in the other agencies' decisions or of actual procurement irregularities.

Atty. Carlo Joaquin T. Narvasa maintained a defense objection to testimony about Atty. Carpio's firearms and challenged Sangalang's ability to appraise them. He argued that the current market-survey figures were irrelevant to acquisition cost and that the 2025 SALN rules cited by the prosecution would apply only to submissions beginning in 2026.

The prosecution offered to withdraw its Rule 26 request for admission if the defense stipulated to the existence, bank production, and authenticity of records; the defense said it needed time to review documents and suggested later stipulations. The chair said the court would still rule on the request and objection after written submissions, within the week if not the next day. The session ended with that ruling still pending.

The prosecution was asked to prepare additional witnesses. The court expected to address prior show-cause orders after Mayor Sebastian Duterte’s anticipated testimony and adjourned until 10 a.m. Tuesday, September 29, 2026.