Office of the Vice President staff member Gina Acosta, who previously served as the agency’s special disbursing officer, testifies before the Senate impeachment court on Monday, August 17, 2026. She was declared the prosecution’s first hostile witness in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial.
The Senate impeachment court on Monday allowed the prosecution to treat former Office of the Vice President special disbursing officer Gina Acosta as a hostile witness in the trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Presiding officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero made the ruling after questioning Acosta about her current employment at the OVP and her direct working relationship with Duterte.
Acosta said she continued to hold a coterminous post as Vice Presidential Staff Officer VI and acknowledged that her employment at the OVP would end if Duterte were removed from office.
The court also took into account Acosta’s counter-affidavit in an Ombudsman case involving the use of confidential funds, finding enough basis to allow the prosecution greater leeway in examining her.
Under the ruling, private prosecutor Amando Ligutan was permitted to ask leading questions, while misleading questions remained barred.
The defense had objected, arguing that Acosta’s adverse interest had not yet been sufficiently established and that her participation in an Ombudsman case did not automatically make her hostile to the prosecution.
Acosta, who handled confidential funds while serving as OVP special disbursing officer in 2022 and 2023, became the first witness in the impeachment trial to receive the hostile designation.
Prosecutors are seeking to show that Duterte ordered the withdrawal of Php 500 million in OVP confidential funds in four tranches between December 2022 and July 2023 and that the money was turned over to an OVP security officer. The amount forms part of the Php 612.5 million in confidential funds cited in the first impeachment article.