Gencorp Industries Inc., a company Vice President Sara Z. Duterte declared in her 2024 and 2025 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) as a business interest and where she identified herself as a shareholder, received 49 government contracts worth P35.88 million during her term as vice president, according to PhilGEPS records presented before the Senate Impeachment Court.
PhilGEPS Division Chief Rendell Sopeña testified that the contracts awarded to Gencorp came from three government entities: the Davao City government, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) Region XI, and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Region XI.
‘The search resulted in 49 awarded contracts to Gencorp Industries Inc.,’ Sopeña said.
Based on PhilGEPS records, Davao City awarded 15 contracts amounting to P34.216 million, PhilHealth Region XI granted 33 contracts worth P1.331 million, while OWWA Region XI awarded one contract worth P330,000. The total value reached P35,878,188.
The records covered government awards issued from July 21, 2022, to June 23, 2026. The presiding officer confirmed that the contracts identified in the records occurred during Duterte’s tenure as vice president.
Sopeña explained that PhilGEPS serves as the government’s centralized electronic procurement portal where agencies publish bidding activities, award notices, and related documents.
He said the system was created ‘to promote transparency, efficiency, and the utilization of a single electronic portal where all procurement activities will be recorded.’
The PhilGEPS search produced 231 procurement documents totaling 484 pages. These included requests for quotation, bidding documents, notices of award, Bids and Awards Committee resolutions, notices to proceed, and contracts related to the government transactions.
Sopeña said his office certified the documents extracted from the PhilGEPS database and provided both electronic copies and printed records to the court. He also prepared a summary to assist the parties in reviewing the documents.
The procurement records included transactions involving food supplies and catering services. Prosecutors presented the documents as part of their evidence regarding Duterte’s declared business and financial interests.
The presentation followed previous testimony from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding Gencorp’s corporate records. An SEC official earlier testified that Duterte’s name did not appear in the company’s incorporation papers or General Information Sheets reviewed by the agency.
However, Duterte’s 2024 and 2025 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) identified Gencorp as a business interest and declared her as a shareholder, with the acquisition of the interest listed in 2013.
Lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said the SALN declaration connected Duterte to the company. ‘The admission came from the respondent herself,’ Luistro said during the proceedings.
Luistro said the procurement records were relevant to the allegation of non-divestment of business and financial interests under the Articles of Impeachment. She cited constitutional provisions restricting certain government officials from holding financial interests connected with government contracts.
Defense counsel Atty. Robie Batungbacal, however, pointed out that the Davao City contracts were awarded after Duterte had already left her position as city mayor.
The hearing ended after Luistro completed her direct examination of Sopeña. The PhilGEPS official is expected to return to the witness stand for cross-examination by Duterte’s defense team as the impeachment proceedings continue.
The defense team argued that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) director for Company Registration and Monitoring Department Atty. Gerardo del Rosario has no personal knowledge of the corporations linked to Vice President Sara Duterte during the cross -examination on the 28th day of the impeachment trial.
Defense counsel Justin Nicol B. Gular underscored that del Rosario has no personal knowledge regarding the day-to-day operations, management decisions, or internal agreements of the corporations linked to Duterte.
‘So to confirm, the SEC has no personal knowledge or information to any incorporation related transactions assumably or purportedly between these corporations and the Vice President, ‘Gular asked, to which del Rosario agreed.
The corporations and firms mentioned by Gular while cross-examining del Rosario were Metro City Chow Foods Corporation, Madayaw Fisheries Inc., and Amianan Shores Inc., among others. Earlier, House prosecutors presented a list of 18 corporations and firms linked to her and her husband, lawyer Manases ‘Mans’ Carpio.
However, del Rosario admitted that the SEC does not have copies of public officials’ Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) and therefore cannot use them to verify potential conflicts of interest, and that he could not personally verify if the Vice President’s stock portions constituted a conflict of interest under Republic Act 6713.
Likewise, Gular emphasized that Duterte was never a corporate secretary for any of these firms, to which, del Rosario agreed that statutory obligations to file specific sworn corporate documents fall on a company’s corporate secretary, not on ordinary shareholders. With Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco