Baste Duterte admits Cruz business ties, defends 19 GenCorp deals
By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan
PASAY CITY — Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte admitted before the Senate impeachment court on Tuesday, Sept. 29, that he is in business with Jaime T. Cruz, the listed main stockholder of GenCorp Industries Inc., a company linked to his sister, Vice President Sara Duterte.
The mayor also testified that the vice president did not intervene in Davao City’s procurement contracts with GenCorp, which won at least 19 catering contracts from the city government, including several in which it was the sole bidder.
The prosecution presented Duterte as a hostile witness on Day 31 of the vice president’s impeachment trial, where he faced questions on Davao City’s contracts with GenCorp, reported to be worth about PHP 35 million.
The hostile-witness declaration allowed the prosecution to use leading questions during his testimony.
Private prosecutor Theodore “Ted” Te asked the mayor directly whether he knew Cruz.
“Kilala niyo po ba si Jaime T. Cruz?” Te asked.
“Yes, sir,” Duterte replied.
Te then went directly to their business relationship: “Kilala niyo siya dahil kanegosyo niyo siya, di ba?”
“Yes, sir,” Duterte answered, confirming the business connection.
The prosecution then presented the 2026 General Information Sheet of Chinese Gen B Foods Corp.
Duterte confirmed that his name appears in the document as a shareholder.
He also confirmed that the names of his brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, and of Cruz appear in the same corporate record.
That testimony established a direct corporate link between the mayor and Cruz outside GenCorp.
Under questioning from Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the mayor described Cruz as a friend of his father and a known businessman in Davao, rather than a friend of the entire family.
“He’s a friend of my father. He’s a known businessman in Davao,” Duterte said.
Hontiveros also confronted the mayor with Cruz’s links to GenCorp and to other companies involving members of the Duterte family.
Unaware of GenCorp’s owners
The questioning on Cruz came after Te asked the mayor about the 19 contracts awarded by the Davao City government to GenCorp, and whether he had personally examined the company’s corporate records before the awards were made.
Duterte said he had not personally reviewed the 19 contracts before they were awarded.
When Te asked whether Duterte knew that Cruz was GenCorp’s listed main stockholder, the mayor said he was unaware.
“And you’re not aware that Mr. Jaime T. Cruz is the listed main stockholder of GenCorp Industries Incorporated?” Te asked.
“No,” Duterte replied.
Te followed up: “That’s because you didn’t take a look at the corporate papers of GenCorp, right?”
Duterte again answered, “No.”
Earlier in his testimony, Duterte acknowledged that he did not personally know GenCorp’s business and had not personally examined its corporate records.
Asked directly whether he knew what business GenCorp was engaged in, Duterte answered, “No, no.”
Denies sister’s intervention
Asked whether the vice president participated or intervened, directly or indirectly, in the governance or administration of Davao City during his time as mayor, Duterte answered, “No.”
He also denied that his sister had intervened in any procurement contract involving the Davao City government after she became vice president.
The mayor said he never received a special request from his sister concerning any transaction or contract involving the city government.
He denied receiving any request for a favor, accommodation, or special treatment for GenCorp.
He added that no city official or member of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) had told him that the vice president had asked for special treatment for the company.
When asked whether it was in his sister’s character to seek favors or special treatment in government contracts, Duterte answered, “No.” The court allowed the question over a defense objection.
The mayor testified that he had no personal knowledge of the vice president’s business interests, investments, or possible beneficial ownership in corporations.
Asked why he did not have such information despite being her brother, he said: “We simply do not discuss this.”
He likewise said he had no personal knowledge of her liabilities or assets, adding, “It’s not my responsibility to know this.”
19 contracts, not 15
In its offer of his testimony, the prosecution had cited 15 food and catering contracts that the mayor, as head of the procuring entity, approved for GenCorp from 2022 to 2025.
Duterte corrected the prosecution’s figure and said his records showed 19 contracts.
Earlier in the proceedings, the court noted that 15 documents matched transactions identified by witness Rendell Sopeña, division chief of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS).
Four more documents in the mayor’s submission had not been identified during Sopeña’s testimony.
These covered the periods of April to June 2023, January to March 2024, April to June 2026, and July to September 2026.
The prosecution’s offer of proof placed the total value of the city’s GenCorp awards from 2022 to 2025 at PHP 34,216,900.
The mayor said the contracts were awarded after evaluation by the city’s BAC, and that he was not a BAC member.
He said his signing authority had been delegated by executive order to Assistant City Administrator Tristan Dwight P. Domingo.
In one 2025 procurement examined by the prosecution, a bid for food and catering services had an approved budget for the contract of PHP 10.8 million.
The BAC resolution declared GenCorp the single calculated responsive bidder and recommended the award. The notice of award set the contract amount at PHP 8.4 million.
The notice of award indicated that Domingo signed on the mayor’s authority under Executive Order No. 12 dated July 1, 2025.
In another transaction, a first-quarter 2026 purchase order for food and catering services amounted to PHP 554,000 and listed negotiated procurement as the procurement mode.
The prosecution also questioned a Davao City requirement that suppliers have at least five store outlets in the city and have been in their line of business for at least five years.
Duterte said he did not know whether GenCorp complied with the five-year requirement, adding that the city could check its records.
The mayor said the contracts had not been flagged by the Commission on Audit.
Asked whether the contracts between Davao City and GenCorp were “above board and legal,” Duterte answered in the affirmative.
Gatchalian: GenCorp keeps winning
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, a former Valenzuela City mayor, pressed Duterte on whether he had asked why GenCorp kept winning the city’s contracts. Gatchalian said that in his experience, local procurement normally attracts several competing suppliers.
“Kasi normally sa LGU, like sa amin sa Valenzuela, daming caterer. Pag nagpapa-open kami, daming sumasali talaga. Kaya gusto ko malaman, natanong n’yo ba sa kanya, bakit ito parating nananalo si GenCorp?” Gatchalian said.
The mayor said he had raised the matter with Domingo, whom he identified as the official who handled the transactions. He said he was told that GenCorp repeatedly qualified for the contracts.
“His answer was simply because they were the most qualified and they complied with all the requirements,” Duterte told the court.
Gatchalian then asked whether the mayor had personally examined the abstracts of quotations to see who competed against GenCorp, how much they offered, and why GenCorp prevailed. The mayor admitted he had not.
An abstract of quotations is a procurement record that lists the suppliers who took part in a canvass, their offered prices, and the basis for the award.
“Hindi ko na tiningnan…” Duterte said.
GenCorp ownership under scrutiny
The vice president, who has been a lawyer since 2005 and says she obtained a grade of 80% in the bar examinations, declared under oath in her 2024 and 2025 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) that she owned shares of stock in GenCorp.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) records presented in court, however, do not list her as a direct incorporator or director of GenCorp. That leaves her SALN declarations as the documented link between the vice president and the company.
Recent sessions of the trial also showed that GenCorp was a franchisee of a popular Filipino fast-food chain in Davao City.
SEC testimony showed that JTC Group of Companies Philippines Inc. is GenCorp’s largest corporate shareholder, with a 55% stake. It is also listed as GenCorp’s largest subscriber in the company’s incorporation records.
Corporate records identify Cruz as JTC Group’s representative in GenCorp.
On Sept. 21, SEC Company Registration and Monitoring Department Director Gerardo del Rosario identified Cruz as an incorporator of several companies linked to the vice president. These include City Hall King Chow Foods Corp., Davao Bounty Times Foods Corp., Davao Emerging Taipans Corp., and Davao New Royal Taipan Foods Corp.
Del Rosario also testified that Cruz and the vice president are both listed as shareholders of Metro City Chow Foods Corp.
Cruz served as special envoy to China for trade and investments under former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Tuesday’s testimony places Cruz at three points in the case: the mayor acknowledged him as a business partner, the prosecution identified him as GenCorp’s listed main stockholder, and GenCorp is the company that won Davao City contracts and that the vice president declared as a business interest.
Constitutional ban
The questioning forms part of the prosecution’s case under Article II of the impeachment complaint, which accuses the vice president of failing to divest from certain business and financial interests while in office.
The prosecution has flagged the SALN declarations several times as a direct violation of Article VII, Section 13 of the 1987 Constitution, which bars high executive officials from participating in any business.
The provision covers the president, the vice president, members of the Cabinet, and their deputies or assistants. During their tenure, it bars them from practicing any other profession, participating in any business, or being financially interested in any contract with the government or any of its subdivisions, directly or indirectly.
Under the 1987 Constitution, conviction in an impeachment trial requires the vote of two-thirds of all senators.
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