Jamaine Punzalan

Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno joins oral arguments on the issuance of subpoenas for the financial records of Vice President Sara Duterte,July 15, 2026. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

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VP Sara Impeachment

Rowegie Abanto

ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA — During this week&#x27;s Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, Senator-judge Pia Cayetano raised the Supreme Court&#x27;s 1967 landmark decision in Stonehill vs. Diokno, which <a href="https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1967/jun1967/gr_l-19550_1967.html">struck down the issuance of general warrants</a>.</p><p>Cayetano invited both parties to examine whether the case applied to the prosecution&#x27;s request for <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/20/impeachment-court-subpoenas-duterte-bank-records-1730">subpoenas for Duterte&#x27;s financial records</a> spanning over a period of several years.</p><p>For the Duterte defense team, Stonehill vs. Diokno can be used to bolster their case <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/15/defense-says-subpoena-for-duterte-bank-tax-records-a-weapon-of-fishing-expedition-1531">against the issuance of subpoenas </a>because the plea, they say, requests nearly all of her financial records tantamount to a &quot;fishing expedition.&quot; </p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8bgrbBMz_8Q?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div><strong>What is Stonehill vs. Diokno, and why, according to the prosecution, is it unrelated to the subpoena for Duterte&#x27;s records?</strong></div><p>In 1962, several judges, upon the application of Jose Diokno, secretary of justice at the time, issued a total of 42 warrants for peace officers to separately search the residences of American businessman Harry Stonehill and his associates and their firms&#x27; offices.</p><p>The warrants ordered the search of books of accounts, financial records, vouchers, correspondence, receipts, ledgers, journals, portfolios, credit journals, typewriters, and other documents and/or papers showing all business transactions including disbursements receipts, balance sheets and profit and loss statements and Bobbins (cigarette wrappers).</p><p>Stonehill was allegedly involved in massive corruption, involving supposed bribery of government officials.</p><p>He challenged the search warrants before the Supreme Court, saying they were general warrants prohibited by the constitution.</p><p>The Supreme Court ruled that Stonehill and his associates cannot contest the warrants on the corporations because they have their respective personalities, which are separate and distinct from the petitioners.</p><p>The high court however declared that searches in the petitioners&#x27; residences were illegal.</p><p>&quot;To uphold the validity of the warrants in question would be to wipe out completely one of the most fundamental rights guaranteed in our Constitution, for it would place the sanctity of the domicile and the privacy of communication and correspondence at the mercy of the whims caprice or passion of peace officers,&quot; it said.</p><p>&quot;This is precisely the evil sought to be remedied by the constitutional provision above quoted — to outlaw the so-called general warrants.&quot;</p><p>Due to &quot;the seriousness of the irregularities&quot; in the search warrants, the case led to the Supreme Court to amend Section 3 of Rule 122 of the former Rules of Court 14 by providing in its counterpart, under the Revised Rules of Court 15, that &quot;a search warrant shall not issue but upon probable cause in connection with one specific offense.&quot; </p><p>It added that &quot;no search warrant shall issue for more than one specific offense.&quot;</p><p>The high court also adopted the &quot;exclusionary rule&quot; in Philippine jurisprudence, which meant evidence obtained through illegal means cannot be used in court.</p><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/178470102482220260715-senate-impeachement-day6-diokno-MT825.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno joins oral arguments on the issuance of subpoenas for the financial records of Vice President Sara Duterte, July 15, 2026. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News </span></span></span></div><p>For House prosecutor Chel Diokno, son of Jose Diokno, Stonehill vs. Diokno does not apply to the prosecution&#x27;s request for the subpoena for Duterte&#x27;s bank, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Anti-Money Laundering documents as subpoenas are not as invasive as search warrants.</p><p>Rep. Diokno pointed out that in the subpoenas, documents to be requested were specified in the pleading and that the admissibility of the records as evidence before the impeachment court has yet to be discussed.</p><p>The Senate impeachment court <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/20/impeachment-court-subpoenas-duterte-bank-records-1730">granted virtually all of the prosecution&#x27;s request</a> to subpoena documents related to Duterte.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO: </strong></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6iwe2o6_jKg?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><br/></div>

<p>What is Stonehill vs. Diokno, and why, according to the prosecution, is it unrelated to the subpoena for Duterte's records?</p>

What is Stonehill vs. Diokno, and why, according to the prosecution, is it unrelated to the subpoena for Duterte's records?

What is Stonehill vs Diokno?

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What is Stonehill vs Diokno?

Rowegie Abanto,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 22, 2026 02:17 PM PHT

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Sara Duterte

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