Defense witness confirms VP Sara got PHP 2.14M from GenCorp

MANILA — A defense witness told the Senate impeachment court on Wednesday that Vice President Sara Duterte sat on the board of a private fast-food company and received more than PHP 2.1 million from a Jollibee branch in Davao City while in office.

Lawyer Suzette Balucanag-Punay, corporate counsel for both GenCorp Industries Inc. and Metro City Chow Foods Corp., testified for the defense to counter the allegation that the vice president had undeclared business dealings.

Her testimony instead confirmed that Duterte remained a director of Metro City Chow and continued to draw cash disbursements from the operation of a Jollibee branch under GenCorp, payouts Punay attributed to a “loose investment.”

The prosecution alleges that Duterte’s business involvement violated Article VII, Section 13 of the Constitution, which bars the president and vice president from participating in any business while in office.

Under direct examination by defense counsel Justin Nicol Gular, Punay said Duterte is an incorporator of Metro City Chow Foods along with Jaime Cruz, Richie Yvette Cruz, Kimberly Justine Cruz, and Gurley dela Cruz.

Asked by Gular why Duterte stayed on the corporate board after assuming the vice presidency, Punay cited the company’s required number of directors.

“Based on their articles of incorporation, the corporation must have five directors. And since there are only five stockholders, then everybody is a director,” Punay said.

Punay also read from GenCorp’s ledgers, which showed the company gave Duterte PHP 337,500 in 2022, PHP 555,750 in 2023, PHP 612,419.14 in 2024, and PHP 636,700 in 2025.

“Let’s summarize it from the year 2022 to 2025. How much was the total disbursement from GenCorp Industries Inc. to the Vice President, Sara Zimmerman Duterte?” Gular asked.

“It’s a total of P2,142,369 and 14 centavos,” Punay replied, adding that the amounts were drawn via checks “coming from the bank account” of the Jollibee Times Square branch.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, the presiding officer, pressed Punay on her characterization of the payments as “return of capital” from the vice president’s “loose investments.”

“Ba’t siya binabalikan ng kapital? Ano po ba ang interest niya sa branch na yun? Nagpa-utang ba siya? Nagpaluwal ba siya? May porsyento ba siya sa branch? Ano po ba yung dokumentong nagsasabi ng interest niya roon?” Escudero asked.

“I actually did not see a written document, Your Honor,” Punay replied.

“So why is GenCorp giving a monthly amount to the Vice President from the Times Square branch from June 2022, presumably when the branch was opened?” Escudero said. “You characterized it as ‘return of capital.’ What’s the basis of giving her anything?”

“The return of capital was from the loose investment, which was carried over to Great Jolly Times, Times Square B, and eventually to GCorp,” Punay said.

“Vice President Sara was a stockholder of Davao Bounty Foods Corporation. And this Davao Bounty Foods Corporation was supposed to be the one to operate Jollibee Times Square. But Davao Bounty Foods did not acquire a franchise,” Punay testified.

After Davao Bounty failed to secure the franchise, the outlet at Times Square Plaza opened under Great Jolly Times Foods Corp.

The branch was transferred in 2013 to Times Square Bee Foods Corp. and is now operated by GenCorp, which controls five Jollibee branches in Davao.

Punay testified that Duterte was not formally listed on the corporate rosters of the successor entities, yet her financial stake carried through each corporate restructuring.

“The stock holdings or the investment of Sara in Davao Bounty was just carried over to Great Jolly Times,” Punay told the court. “It’s a loose investment because the Vice President is not a stockholder of Great Jolly Times.”

Duterte’s supposed shares in GenCorp and other companies, held together with her husband, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio, form part of her allegedly undeclared assets and unexplained wealth.

Forensic financial expert Alexander Cabrera estimated that wealth at no less than PHP 817.87 million between 2022 and 2025.

Cabrera took the stand on Oct. 9 as the last witness for the House prosecution panel.

Within that audit, Cabrera applied a 20% economic-interest attribution to GenCorp.

He calculated alleged undeclared annual corporate income of PHP 55,714,292 in 2023, PHP 74,056,480 in 2024, and PHP 82,858,946 in 2025, for a total of PHP 212.63 million.

Errors in GenCorp

Sen. Joel Villanueva, sitting as senator-judge, questioned the reliability of GenCorp’s corporate filings, while Sen. Panfilo Lacson insisted that Duterte’s sworn asset declarations carry more weight than the company’s list of stockholders.

Duterte declared GenCorp shares in her 2024 and 2025 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs).

Punay maintained that Duterte is not a shareholder of GenCorp, which has secured millions of pesos in contracts in Davao City.

Villanueva said the filings of GenCorp contained so many inaccuracies that its official list of stockholders could not be trusted.

“Binanggit niyo nga po kanina, ‘not perfect,’ which I don’t agree kasi parang masyadong underrated ‘yung not perfect. Ang daming mali dito sa GIS (General Information Sheets), maraming inaccuracies. Would you agree with that, ma’am?” Villanueva asked Punay.

“Agree,” Punay replied.

Villanueva followed up on the answer.

“So, posible din po ba na mali din ang listahan ng stockholders, Your Honor, Madam Witness?” he asked.

Punay insisted she was “certain” of the accuracy of the roster of stockholders, but Villanueva said the list could also be incomplete.

“Maaaring hindi rin po nabanggit na may iba pang stockholders. At dahil nga nasa pagdinig tayo ng impeachment ng ating Pangalawang Pangulo, wala din po talaga diyan ang ating Pangalawang Pangulo,” Villanueva said.

GenCorp’s paperwork also came under question from Lacson, who drew on his decades in public office to ask why Duterte would declare an asset in her SALN if she never owned it.

“Let’s forget for a while that the Vice President is the issue or the central issue in this proceeding. Ang tanong ko lang po is, would you have declared an asset in your SALN that you’ve never owned or had in the first place and in fact at any point in your life?” Lacson asked Punay, who spent five years as a government investigator at PhilHealth.

“No po,” Punay responded.

“Hindi, ‘di ba? Because if you did, it defies logic and even common sense,” Lacson said. “Kasi wala ka man lang memory. Kung dating meron kang pag-aari at nawala, pwede mo pang magkamali ka, ‘di ba?”

Lacson also asked Punay about the admissibility and evidentiary weight of Duterte’s declarations and the corporate filings.

“This is getting to be interesting, but also confusing. From a layman to a lawyer, Atty. Suzette, between an admission against interest—notarized—and official public documents like the GIS (General Information Sheet), which has more admissibility and probative weight?” Lacson asked.

Punay answered that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings carry more weight.

Lacson countered by citing Rule 130 of the Rules of Court and pointing to Duterte’s sworn declarations that she held shares in the company.

Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan argued that an admission ranks “highest” in the hierarchy of evidence.

She cited a provision of Rule 130 that allows a party’s act, statement, or omission concerning a relevant fact to be used as evidence against that party.

The contrast lies at the center of Article II of the Articles of Impeachment, which accuses Duterte of having undeclared assets and unexplained wealth.

Cabrera attributed PHP 212.63 million of his estimate to GenCorp using the 20% benchmark, citing Duterte’s own 2024 and 2025 SALNs, in which she declared that she was a GenCorp shareholder.

In those filings, Duterte declared that GenCorp was formerly Times Square Bee Food Corp. and Great Jolly Times Food, though corporate papers examined by the SEC showed no formal record of her shares.

The trial has been running since July 6.

Only Article II remains before the court, the three other articles having been withdrawn by House prosecutors on Oct. 13.

Senate budget hearings then kept the court idle until Nov. 9, when the defense was scheduled to open its presentation of evidence.

Escudero has said a verdict is possible before the year closes.