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November 13, 2026 | 10:18am
Defense counsel Michael Poa speaks before the Senate impeachment court during the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Nov. 12, 2026.
Senate of the Philippines via Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — The defense team of Vice President Sara Duterte has dropped 16 bank officials from its witness list in her impeachment trial, including a Bank of the Philippine Islands executive whom prosecutors wanted to question about her alleged dollar accounts.
The latest witness withdrawn was BPI senior vice president Paul Roderick Ysmael, who was supposed to authenticate a letter concerning the bank accounts of Duterte and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Defense counsel Michael Poa said Ysmael was no longer needed since he had already admitted writing the letter during an earlier court proceeding. The document had also been marked as evidence for the defense.
“It would be in the interest of time that we just dispensed with this witness,” Poa told the Senate impeachment court on Thursday, November 12.
The defense had dropped 15 other bank officials from its witness list a day earlier.
Prosecutors, however, said they wanted to question Ysmael about BPI records indicating that Duterte maintained dollar accounts.
“Unfortunately, before we had a chance to cross-examine the witness about this dollar account, they dispensed with the testimony,” prosecution counsel Benjamin Tolosa Jr. said.
Private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim Alih also sought permission to make additional manifestations on the documents subpoenaed for Ysmael's testimony, but presiding officer Chiz Escudero denied the request, saying that the prosecution had already rested its case.
The BPI accounts resurfaced in October when Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura testified that Duterte and her father maintained a joint account at the bank's Julia Vargas branch in Pasig City. A covered transaction report showed that P9.1 million was withdrawn from the account in a single transaction in April 2013.
Meanwhile, prosecutors said the defense had yet to directly challenge the P817 million in alleged unexplained wealth attributed to Duterte by financial forensic expert Alexander Cabrera.
By the end of the 43rd day of proceedings on Thursday, the defense had presented six witnesses over four hearing days but had yet to directly rebut Cabrera's computation.
