Davao City awarded 19 contracts worth ₱33.26 million to GenCorp Industries Inc., a food corporation listed by Vice President Sara Duterte as a business interest in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN), according to her brother and its mayor, Sebastian Duterte.
But the mayor said he only became “familiar” with GenCorp when it was mentioned during the Vice President’s impeachment trial, though he acknowledged that its major stockholder, Jaime Tan Cruz, is a family friend and his business partner in another venture.
On Tuesday. Sept. 29, Mayor Duterte, the Vice President’s youngest brother, was the prosecution’s hostile witness in presenting their evidence on allegations that she amassed unexplained wealth on Day 31 of her impeachment trial.
The Vice President declared GenCorp as a business interest in her financial disclosures in 2024 and 2025, but her name does not appear in the company’s corporate records.
Court mention
When House public prosecutor Theodore Te asked him if he was “familiar” with GenCorp, Mayor Duterte said he was “when it has been raised in this court, but before that, no.”
“Well, it was mentioned here, in this court,” the witness said.
He said he had “no independent knowledge” of the food firm when Te asked him to clarify if his knowledge “is limited to the reference of GenCorp to this court.” He also said he was not aware that his sister had any business interest in GenCorp.
The prosecution asked the Senate impeachment court to subpoena the Davao City mayor a few days after Rendell Sopeña, division chief of the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System, testified that GenCorp secured 49 government contracts in the Davao Region worth ₱35.9 million.
GenCorp secured the largest award worth ₱34.2 million covering 14 contracts from the Davao City government under its mayor, Sopeña said.
Reiteration
But at Tuesday’s trial, the mayor reiterated a Sept. 21 statement that his office actually awarded GenCorp 19 contracts worth ₱33.26 million since 2022. Of these 19 contracts, 13 have been “consummated while the remaining six represent ongoing accounts,” he said.
Through Te’s questioning, Mayor Duterte reiterated that four of these contracts were secured through competitive public bidding, while the remaining 15 were through small value procurement.
He said he authorized his assistant city administrator, Tristan Dwight Domingo, to sign contracts “on my (the mayor’s) behalf.”
When Te asked him about his Sept. 21 statement that he did “rigorous evaluation” of GenCorp corporate records, the mayor replied that the bids and awards committee (BAC) did it.
Te said the mayor did not evaluate GenCorp records because he was not a BAC member, and he gave final approval of the contract.
Mayor Duterte agreed and said he did not examine GenCorp records “because there was no irregularity.” He added: “Most of the submissions of procurement, I cannot look at all of these.”
Business owners
Te also asked the witness if he had looked into GenCorp’s records to know about its business and its owners. He replied in the negative, and gave the same answer when asked if he knew GenCorp even by its reputation.
Mayor Duterte was also asked whether he knew the food firm complied with the city government’s requirement that bidding suppliers should be operational for five years. GenCorp started its operations in 2020 and started securing contracts with the city government in 2022.
“It is presumed that it has complied,” the witness said. He later said the BAC could have modified the five-year requirement.
When Te asked him if he was “familiar” with whether his sister had declared an interest in GenCorp, he replied in the negative.
Noting that the witness is the head of the procuring entity and mayor in Davao City, Te asked whether his sister had a conflict of interest with GenCorp contracts and that as mayor, he was in a position to advise her on this conflict of interest.
Defense lawyer Justin Gular objected to Te’s question for being “speculative” and hypothetical.
SEC record
Interjecting for the prosecution, Senate presiding officer Francis Escudero asked Mayor Duterte if he saw or was familiar with his sister’s SALN; he replied in the negative. The witness also said “no” when asked if he knew the corporations that his sister listed in her SALNs.
“It was revealed during the hearing that the vice president listed herself as a shareholder in GenCorp. But the hearing also revealed that her name was not in the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) record,” Escudero said in Filipino.
“If this is what Attorney Ted is leading to, if what I am saying is right: If she is a stockholder of GenCorp, and you know about it, you would not allow any contract in Davao, right?” Escudero said. “I would not allow it,” the mayor said.
Te questioned the mayor over Cruz’s ties with the Duterte family. Cruz had served as special envoy to China for trade and investments under then President Rodrigo Duterte and was offered the job to head the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. after his stint, which he turned down.
Chinese Gen Bee Foods
Mayor Duterte acknowledged he knew Cruz and they were both stockholders of Chinese Gen Bee Foods Corp. as Te presented the company’s general information sheet this year.
The witness acknowledged that his brother, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, was also a stockholder of Chinese Gen Bee Foods.
When Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros asked him to describe Cruz’s relationship to their family, the mayor said the relationship with the businessman was “not entirely the family.”
“But he’s a friend of my father. He’s a known businessman in Davao,” the witness told Hontiveros, who pointed out that Cruz was also his and the Vice President’s business partner.
“It cannot be said that your family’s relationship (with Cruz) is distant; it’s more appropriate to describe your relationship as close,” the senator said in Filipino. The mayor replied in the affirmative.
Request for admission
In another matter, the impeachment court ruled against the prosecution’s bid to have Vice President Duterte admit her bank and tax records and her husband’s business interests.
“Respondent’s right to self-incrimination under Article III, Section 17, must therefore be respected in this trial,” Escudero said. The constitutional provision provides that “no person should be compelled to be a witness against himself.”
He noted that due process “requires the prosecution to establish the charges through competent evidence and that respondent be afforded a fair and meaningful opportunity to contest such evidence.”
The prosecution, he pointed out, “cannot shift its burden of proof through the simple request of a Request for Admission.”
But Escudero said the court denied the defense’s plea to expunge the request. CS
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