By Cliff Potts, Editor-in-Chief, WPS News
BAYBAY CITY, LEYTE, Philippines, August 1, 2026 — 0705 PHST

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The Money Trail Gets Real

Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial has moved into the part of the case that may matter most: the cash withdrawals, bank records, tax records, and confidential-funds trail.

After earlier hearings focused on Duterte’s public remarks against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the Senate impeachment court is now digging into Article I, which centers on the alleged misuse of confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.

The headline from this week is simple: former LandBank officials testified that large cash withdrawals involving the OVP and DepEd were “unusual” (GMA News Online, 2026a).

Former LandBank Officials Testify

According to GMA News, two former LandBank branch managers told the impeachment court that huge cash withdrawals connected to Duterte’s offices were not ordinary transactions. The testimony involves the confidential-funds allegations tied to the ₱612.5 million at the center of Article I — ₱500 million from the Office of the Vice President and ₱112.5 million from DepEd, where Duterte previously served as secretary (GMA News Online, 2026a).

That does not prove guilt by itself. “Unusual” is not the same thing as “illegal.” But it matters because prosecutors are no longer speaking only in broad political claims. They are now putting bank witnesses into the record and asking the Senate to follow how money was released, withdrawn, handled, and liquidated.

That is where this trial becomes harder to dismiss as just noise.

Marcos Authorizes Tax Records

The other major development is that President Marcos has authorized the release of Duterte’s tax records to the Senate impeachment court. Reuters reported Thursday that the records were approved for use in the trial, where Duterte faces allegations that include unexplained wealth (Reuters, 2026a).

That authorization matters because Philippine tax records are confidential, and the Senate had previously stopped short of forcing their release until the required legal process was satisfied. Reuters previously reported that the impeachment court had granted a subpoena for tax records but said disclosure first had to comply with tax-confidentiality rules (Reuters, 2026b).

Now that Marcos has approved the release, the prosecution gets another path into the financial side of the case.

Why This Matters

The political smell around this case has not gone away. Duterte remains a major 2028 presidential figure, Marcos cannot run for another term, and the Marcos-Duterte alliance that won in 2022 has collapsed into open political warfare.

But this week’s developments are not just political theater. Bank testimony and tax records are concrete. They create a paper trail. They can be challenged, explained, contradicted, or verified. That is exactly what the Senate impeachment court should be doing.

The defense still has room to argue that prosecutors are overreaching, fishing for evidence, or trying to turn ordinary administrative handling of confidential funds into an impeachable offense. That argument may matter, especially if prosecutors cannot connect the withdrawals to misuse.

But the prosecution now has something more substantial than rhetoric. It has witnesses. It has subpoenas. It has access to tax records. And it has the chance to show whether the confidential-funds allegations are backed by evidence or inflated by politics.

For WPS News, the clean read is this: the Sara Duterte impeachment trial has entered the cash-withdrawal phase. This is where the case either becomes a serious financial accountability trial or starts to fall apart under the weight of its own politics.


APA-Style Source List:

GMA News Online. (2026a, July 30). Sara Duterte impeachment trial Day 10: Former LandBank execs say OVP, DepEd huge cash withdrawals “unusual.”

Reuters. (2026a, July 30). Philippines’ Marcos approves release of VP Duterte’s tax records to impeachment trial.

Reuters. (2026b, July 20). Prosecutors win subpoenas for Philippine vice president Duterte’s financial records in impeachment case.

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