Sen.-Judge Erwin Tulfo Questions Mayor Baste Duterte's Signing Habits Amid GenCorp Contract Issue
Senator-Judge Erwin Tulfo pressed Davao City Mayor Sebastian "Baste" Duterte during the Senate impeachment trial on his practice of signing documents without reading them fully, in connection with a contract awarded to a company called GenCorp.
Tulfo asked how many documents the mayor typically signs in a day, and Duterte estimated 50 to 300, consisting of payroll, supplies, contracts, and ordinances, among others. Duterte admitted he does not read all of them fully. He said his usual practice is to glance at a document and trust that it has already passed through his legal team, his chief of staff, or the city administrator, whose countersignatures would already be on it before it reaches him.
Tulfo then pointed out that this meant there was no real standard procedure being followed, since Duterte signs once he sees the countersignatures of his staff already in place. Duterte agreed with this characterization.
The exchange turned to GenCorp, which Duterte said he only recently learned was owned by a relative. Tulfo suggested that once Duterte returns to Davao, he should call his chief of staff to account for the lack of due diligence, warning that Duterte himself could get implicated if the matter is not looked into. Tulfo recommended that it be investigated, and asked whether Duterte saw a breach of law and whether he would look into the matter himself. Duterte said he could not say and that it was up to the courts to decide. He added that as long as the name of "the vice president," referring to his sister, Vice President Sara Duterte, was not on the contract, then "there's nothing."
Source: live coverage of the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, "'Pirma kayo ng pirma': Sen.-Judge Erwin Tulfo to Mayor Baste Duterte kaugnay ng kontrata sa GenCorp," September 29, 2026.