September 28, 2026

Host 1 — Introduction

This is Working Draft's audio overview of the Impeachment Trial of Vice President Sara Duterte for September 28, 2026. This is a working reference, not an official Senate record. Today, two records witnesses took the stand, while a dispute over bank documents remained before the court.

Host 2 — The bank-record dispute

Before testimony resumed, prosecutor Chel Diokno asked the court to allow a request for admission about subpoenaed bank records. He said the defense could acknowledge that the records exist and are genuine bank copies without conceding what they prove.

Host 1 — The defense response

Defense counsel Sheila Sison objected. She argued that the rule's implied-admission mechanism raised a self-incrimination concern and said the defense needed time to review documents still being marked. The presiding officer requested written submissions; he did not decide the request that day.

Host 2 — What PhilGEPS showed

PhilGEPS official Rendell Sopeña discussed an extract presented as 49 GenCorp award entries. He confirmed 15 entries awarded by Davao City and 33 by PhilHealth Region Eleven. When counsel described the last as awarded by OWWA, Sopeña corrected him: it was awarded to OWWA by a procuring entity. These were procurement-system entries, not his firsthand account of each award.

Host 1 — A limit on that evidence

Under defense questioning, Sopeña said procuring entities upload the documents and PhilGEPS serves as a repository. He did not claim firsthand knowledge of the bidding or compliance behind the postings.

Host 2 — The next witness

After Sopeña was excused, Police Major Joericson Sangalang of the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office testified. He said its records showed 22 firearms registered to the Vice President and 29 to her spouse, Atty. Manases Carpio. The defense objected to testimony about Carpio's firearms.

Host 1 — What the figures mean

Sangalang gave current market-survey totals of two million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred fifty pesos for the Vice President's list, and five million, thirty-five thousand, eight hundred twenty pesos for Carpio's. These were current market-survey figures, not the documented acquisition prices of those firearms.

Host 2 — Questions from the bench

Senator-Judge Sherwin Gatchalian pressed that distinction. Sangalang said the system-generated certification did not list each gun's production year, making the actual present value hard to establish from the list alone. The presiding officer also questioned what the estimated values showed against declared assets.

Host 1 — Competing positions

The prosecution argued the firearms should be individually declared under the asset-statement guidelines it cited. Defense counsel Carlo Narvasa challenged the witness's appraisal ability and argued that current survey amounts could not establish acquisition cost. The court heard those competing positions; the testimony itself did not settle them.

Host 2 — Court directions

After limited defense stipulations, the presiding officer allowed Sangalang to testify on the remaining offered purposes. Later, he directed subpoenas for two Davao City Register of Deeds officials and the executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat for dates later that week.

Host 1 — What comes next

The bank-record request was still awaiting a ruling at adjournment. The court expected Mayor Sebastian Duterte the following day and adjourned until ten in the morning on Tuesday, September 29.

Host 2 — Closing

Each substantive point in this overview links to the reviewed transcript and the official Senate video. This has been the September 28, 2026 audio overview.