The House prosecution panel can't help but be mystified by Vice President Sara Duterte aide Gina Acosta’s apparent difficulty in speaking Filipino during her Senate impeachment trial testimony Monday, Aug. 17.

This, despite proof that she readily answered questions in Filipino during a 2024 House inquiry.

House prosecutor San Juan City lone district Rep. Ysabel Maria Zamora said the prosecution noticed the contrast after Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo first raised the issue during Acosta’s testimony as a hostile witness.

“We were wondering about the difficulty earlier,” Zamora said during a press briefing on the sidelines of the hearing.

“Noong hearing sa Congress noon ay nakakaintindi naman siya ng mga tanong in English, Filipino. And she would answer in English, Filipino, and Visaya na halo,” she recalled.

(During the hearing in Congress, she understood the questions in English and Filipino. And she would answer in English, Filipino, and mixed Visayan.)

Zamora, however, stopped short of attributing any motive to Acosta.

“But of course, I don’t want to say that there was some malice involved. But well, let’s see in the coming hours when she returns to the witness stand,” she said.

Tulfo earlier questioned why Acosta repeatedly answered in Cebuano and appeared to have difficulty with Filipino, citing the transcript of her Nov. 25, 2024 testimony before the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.

“Hindi ko po maintindihan bakit parang dito hirap na hirap po siyang mag-Tagalog, when in fact sa Congress po nung November, Tagalog nga po sagot niya,” Tulfo said.

(I cannot understand why she seems to be struggling so much with Tagalog here, when in fact during Congress last November, her answers were in Tagalog.)

Also during the press briefing, House impeachment adviser and spokesperson Robert Ace Barbers gave Acosta the benefit of the doubt, and said she may simply have been nervous because she was testifying in a high-stakes trial.

“Marunong naman siya mag-Tagalog eh. The transcript of the Committee on Good Government shows that she can reply, respond to a question either in English or in Tagalog,” Barbers said.

(She knows how to speak Tagalog. The transcript of the Committee on Good Government shows that she can reply, respond to a question either in English or in Tagalog.)

“So siguro medyo kinabahan lang. We will give her that benefit of the doubt, so to speak,” he added.

(So maybe she just got nervous. We will give her that benefit of the doubt, so to speak.)

Barbers also said Acosta’s responses in Cebuano did not pose a major problem since the prosecutor who conducted direct examination on her, lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan, was from Cebu.

Acosta remains an official at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) after formerly serving as respondent Duterte’s special disbursing officer (SDO). She specifically handled P500 million in OVP confidential funds in 2022 and 2023.