Baste Duterte under oath: Never talked business with VP sis

MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte faced sustained prosecution questioning on Tuesday over 19 city government contracts worth P33.2 million awarded to GenCorp Industries Inc., a company his sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, declared as a business interest in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Baste was declared a hostile witness as the impeachment court scrutinized his knowledge of GenCorp, his responsibility as Davao City’s head of the procuring entity and his business ties to businessman Jaime Tan Cruz.

Separately, the court ruled that Sara could not be compelled to authenticate subpoenaed bank and financial records because of her constitutional right against self-incrimination.

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Under questioning by prosecution counsel Theodore “Ted” Te, Baste said he did not know GenCorp before it was discussed in the impeachment trial, despite the company securing multiple city contracts during his tenure.

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READ: Adiong: If Baste Duterte’s GenCorp claims true, VP put him in danger

“When it has been raised in this court, but before that, no,” Baste said when asked if he was familiar with GenCorp.

Te pressed him on whether he knew Sara had declared GenCorp twice in her 2024 and 2025 SALNs.

“No,” Baste answered.

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On cross-examination, he said he had no personal knowledge of his sister’s stockholdings, investments or beneficial ownerships.

“We simply do not discuss this. I didn’t ask. It’s her privacy,” he said.

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“It’s not my responsibility to know [them],” he added.

‘I would not allow it’

Presiding officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero intervened and asked whether Baste would have allowed GenCorp to transact with Davao City had he known Sara owned shares in the company.

“Now, if she was the stockholder of GenCorp and you knew about it, you would not allow any contract in Davao, right?” Escudero asked.

“I would not allow it,” Baste replied.

Te then asked whether Baste would likewise reject a contract involving a company in which the mayor himself had an interest.

“As head of the procuring entity, if you yourself mayor has a conflict of interest, of course you would not allow the award, right Sir?” Te asked.

“Yes sir, yes sir,” Baste answered.

Baste nevertheless maintained that he was unaware of Sara’s interest and that the city’s transactions with GenCorp were “above board.”

He clarified that there were 19 contracts worth about P33.2 million, not the P14.3 million previously cited. Thirteen had been completed and six were ongoing.

Baste admitted he did not personally examine GenCorp’s corporate records before the awards.

“So you did not personally examine the corporate records?” Te asked.

“Most of the submissions for procurement, I cannot look at all of these,” Baste replied.

The contracts were signed by Assistant City Administrator Tristan Dwight Domingo, whom Baste authorized to represent him.

“I named him as my representative,” Baste said.

Asked if he was aware of all contracts signed by Domingo, Baste said, “Not all,” but added, “If it comes to my table, yes, I would be aware of it.”

He maintained that delegating signing authority did not remove his accountability as mayor and head of the procuring entity.

Why so many contracts?

Senator-judge Sherwin Gatchalian pressed Baste on GenCorp’s repeated contracts with Davao City from 2022 to 2026, including instances when it was the sole bidder.

“Didn’t you ask Atty. Domingo why GenCorp had so many consecutive contracts with the LGU from 2022 all the way to 2026?” Gatchalian asked.

Baste said Domingo told him GenCorp was qualified and had complied with requirements. But he admitted he did not review the abstracts of quotation to determine who participated in the procurement.

Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo raised a possible issue involving GenCorp’s five-year operational track record.

The company’s General Information Sheet (GIS) showed it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020 to operate a restaurant and food service business.

“So, if it was modified in 2024, GenCorp should have been disqualified from receiving contracts under the five-year rule. Therefore, are you not aware that there was an irregularity in accepting contracts with GenCorp?” Tulfo asked.

Baste said the local Bids and Awards Committee could have modified procurement guidelines and that he would verify whether the changes were valid.

Earlier, Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System division chief Rendell Sopeña testified that only four of 15 Davao City food-service contracts awarded to GenCorp went through public bidding; the rest used “negotiated small-value procurement.”

Ties with Jaime T. Cruz

The questioning also established Baste’s business ties with Cruz, whose name has surfaced repeatedly in the impeachment proceedings.

“Do you know Jaime T. Cruz?” Te asked in Filipino.

“Yes,” Baste answered.

“You know him because he is your business partner, isn’t it?”

Baste again answered affirmatively.

Asked about Chinese Gen Bee Food Corp., he said: “I cannot remember but yes, yeah, yeah.”

Te presented the company’s GIS, where Baste confirmed that his name, Paolo Duterte’s and Cruz’s appeared as shareholders.

During an intervention by Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros, Baste described Cruz as a friend of his father and “a known businessman in Davao.”

He later told Gatchalian that although he had business dealings with Cruz, he had not discussed GenCorp with him.

During his turn for interjection, Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo urged Baste to investigate Davao officials involved in the GenCorp contracts.

“Perhaps when you return to Davao, you should summon your chief of staff… because their lack of knowledge or failure to investigate properly could get you into trouble. It might be best to have the matter investigated,” Tulfo suggested.

Baste replied: “As long as my sister’s name, the Vice President’s name, was not on the contract, then there’s nothing.”

Baste put in a bind

During a post-trial briefing, House prosecution spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong said Baste’s claim that he was unaware of Sara’s GenCorp interest could put the mayor in a difficult position.

“Even assuming—without conceding, for instance—that Mayor Baste was unaware that his sister, the Vice President, was one of the shareholders of GenCorp, it speaks volumes, eh,” Adiong said.

He added: “It speaks about her character now, because if we’re following the logic in the explanation, testimony of Mayor Baste Duterte, she’s even willing to put her brother in so much trouble as long as they manage to win contracts in Davao City.”

Adiong said that if Sara declared GenCorp in her SALN but did not inform Baste of the interest while the company dealt with Davao City, the issue could involve her obligations as a public official.

“Because if she really declared it in her SALN—and your question is valid—was she remiss, at least in her obligation, not just as a public official, but as a sibling? After all, knowing that your sibling would be put in a precarious position, why would you do that?” he said.

For his part, House prosecutor Joel Chua said Baste’s relationship with Cruz raised a separate conflict of interest issue because GenCorp is linked to the JTC Group of Companies headed by Cruz.

“First of all, it has already been established that Jaime Cruz was his business partner, so why didn’t he stop him from participating in the bidding in Davao, given that it was clear he was his business partner?” Chua said in Filipino.

“So, even if the Vice President isn’t there, there is already a conflict of interest involving him,” he added.

Forced authentication

In a separate ruling, the impeachment court held that Sara could not be compelled to authenticate subpoenaed bank and financial records.

The prosecution had argued that her admission of their existence and authenticity would speed up the trial. Escudero said such efforts must yield to constitutional protections.

“Any such measure to expedite the proceedings must always yield to the protection of the substantial rights of the respondents under the Constitution,” Escudero said.

“The Bill of Rights applies throughout the impeachment process.”

He said the civil procedure rule on requests for admission could not override Article III, Section 17 of the Constitution protecting the right against self-incrimination.

“Being part of the Bill of Rights, the right against self-incrimination remains protected even under impeachment process as held in Duterte v. House of Representatives,” Escudero said.

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“The impeachment court therefore rules that respondent cannot be required to serve a written response to the request for admission.” —With reports from Zacarian Sarao and Keith Clores