I watched the hearing from a Davao cafe. The courtroom sat far away up north. Yet the story felt close to home.
Vice President Sara Duterte grew up among us. Her family shaped Davao for three decades. Now she faces trial over confidential funds. The total reaches ₱112.5 million. That 2023 spending fell under her DepEd watch.
I kept a small diary this week. Two witnesses drew my closest attention. Both spoke of summits held across Mindanao and Luzon. Their words left me with real questions.
Article I anchors this whole proceeding. It alleges misuse of confidential funds. Auditors flagged ₱15.54 million within the total.
The trial reached its 20th day September 1. Col. Manaros Boransing II took the stand. He came from the 1st Infantry “Tabak” Division. That division guards our Zamboanga Peninsula. I have driven those coastal roads myself.
His unit ran eight Youth Leadership Summits. These reached several Mindanao provinces in 2023. Agusan del Norte hosted one last October. No DepEd funds reached his unit, he said.
That answer struck me as I listened. The Army used its own regular budget. I noted the line in my diary.
The program began back in 2002. It predated Sara’s education post by years. Boransing pegged Army costs near ₱30,000 each. Local governments covered meals, shirts, and team-building. Each summit drew thirty to over a hundred students.
I pictured our own barangay youth there. Mindanao teenagers filled those summit halls. DepEd shared only open-source student details. Army intelligence gathers threats on its own.
Boransing said DepEd gave no surveillance data. He described basic school and schedule information. That distinction mattered to the prosecution.
He signed a certification dated January 2024. It covered eight summits and 53 activities. All fell within his division’s operations area. The paper noted zero insurgent incidents. It confirmed attendance by many stakeholders.
A DepEd undersecretary requested the paper by phone. The call reached his division commander directly. The document mentioned no fund release. It named no financial support at all.
DepEd later used it before state auditors. Boransing learned of that use much later. He first heard it during House hearings.
Records place that hearing in October 2024. Senators pressed him hard on the point. Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian probed the data. Sen. Bam Aquino asked about summit costs. Sen. Panfilo Lacson questioned the later use.
Boransing said he never read the audit papers. He voiced no objection on learning the truth. Sen. Risa Hontiveros drew a sharp contrast. The Army ran similar programs on its budget.
Confidential funds played no role there. That answer stayed with me all night. I underlined it twice in my notebook.
Col. Magtanggol Panopio testified the same day. He led another unit tied to summits. His account matched Boransing’s on the money. Both officers denied certifying the flagged spending. Their papers proved activity on the ground.
Attendance proof differs from a spending trail. The prosecution seized on that careful wording. Private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr. pushed hard. He argued every road leads to Duterte.
Atty. Michael Wesley Poa testified September 2. He served as DepEd chief of staff. He also worked as spokesperson and undersecretary.
The court treated Poa as a hostile witness. That status allowed prosecutors to lead him. Poa now sits on Sara’s defense team. He reported directly to Duterte at DepEd. He sought her guidance before media interviews.
Poa confirmed no secret funds reached the military. The summits used no DepEd confidential money. He signed DepEd’s reply to the auditors. That reply defended the questioned spending.
Then came the line that unsettled me. Poa claimed no firsthand operational knowledge. He answered for funds he barely tracked.
He named a former special disbursing officer. An accountant also signed the liquidation records. Poa said he never signed those originals. He could not verify the underlying spending. His signature covered only the audit response.
Sen. Imee Marcos doubted his limited role. She pressed a chief of staff’s likely reach. Poa held to his account throughout. He insisted operations stayed beyond his desk.
Repeated procedural clashes marked the long session. I felt the tension through my screen. The paper trail seemed to thin out.
Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong spoke for prosecutors. The Lanao del Sur lawmaker summed things up. No secret funds financed the summits, he said. Yet DepEd’s liquidation report still cited them. Three witnesses now agree on that fact.
The military received no DepEd confidential money. Still the flagged ₱15.54 million stays unexplained. I wrote that gap in my diary. The summits happened, yet the trail vanished.
The rewards point back to our region. Counter-insurgency has shaped Mindanao for decades. The New People’s Army long operated here.
I grew up hearing those grim reports. The defense reads the same gap differently. No witness tied Sara to any disbursement. The officers spoke only of their activities. That distance shields her, they argue.
Poa’s stance framed the defense’s core claim. Duterte stayed distant from the daily transactions. The signatures belonged to lower officials. The prosecution called that distance convenient.
I thought about accountability in our region. Public money funds our schools and soldiers. Mindanawons deserve a clear paper trail.
The summits shaped real students in real towns. Their leadership training carried genuine value. The questioned funds concern a separate matter. Those rewards for informants remain the puzzle. No testimony has traced their final path.
I closed my notebook near midnight. The trial resumes in October and November. Sara carries Mindanao in her name. So this Mindanawon keeps watching the gaps.
Originally published in MindaNews on September 5, 2026.
