MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Impeachment Court on Wednesday declared Vice President Sara Duterte’s former Department of Education chief of staff, Michael Wesley Poa, a hostile witness, allowing the House prosecution to question him through leading questions about DepEd’s ₱112.5 million confidential funds.

Presiding officer Senate President Francis Escudero issued the ruling shortly before private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr. began examining Poa.

“The Chair will proceed to declare Atty. Poa as a hostile witness, therefore giving Atty. Tolosa the right to ask leading questions, but again, as a reminder, not to ask misleading questions,” Escudero said.

Poa served as DepEd undersecretary, chief of staff and spokesperson during Duterte’s tenure as education secretary. He is now part of her legal defense team in the impeachment trial.

Lead defense counsel Shiela Sison acknowledged Poa’s present role in Duterte’s defense, telling the court that it could be reasonably presumed that he would not readily support the prosecution’s theory of the case.

The prosecution sought to have Poa treated as a hostile witness as it questioned his role in responding to Commission on Audit findings involving DepEd’s confidential fund expenditures.

Tolosa argued that Poa had previously admitted he had no personal knowledge of how the confidential funds were actually used on the ground before he was tasked to answer COA’s Audit Observation Memoranda.

“Why is it that the Vice President tasked one of his trusted aides to respond to the AOMs issued by the COA when he confessed that he knew nothing about it? That is very material,” Tolosa told the court.

When asked by Escudero to clarify, Tolosa said Poa had no personal knowledge of how the confidential funds were “operationalized or used on the ground.”

The prosecution is examining the use and liquidation of ₱112.5 million in DepEd confidential funds in 2023 as part of the first Article of Impeachment against Duterte.

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