MANILA, Philippines — As Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial moves deeper into questions surrounding confidential funds, one of the younger lawyers on her defense team is increasingly stepping into the spotlight: Atty. Lindon Miguel C. Bacquel.
Bacquel, a senior associate at Fortun, Narvasa and Salazar Law, is among the lawyers defending Duterte before the Senate sitting as an impeachment court. Although he was admitted to the Philippine Bar only in 2022, Bacquel has already taken a visible role in questioning witnesses whose testimony could affect one of the most closely watched parts of the case.
Who is Lindon Bacquel?
According to his law firm, Bacquel was born in 1995 and studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Management, majoring in Legal Management with a minor in English Literature. He later obtained his Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila School of Law.
While studying law, Bacquel interned with the Public Attorney’s Office in Quezon City and the Ateneo Legal Services Center, where, according to his professional biography, he assisted in legal work involving disadvantaged clients.
His current areas of practice include arbitration, immigration, litigation and dispute resolution. FNS Law announced in December 2025 that Bacquel, along with Fritz Paolo Casama and David Ronell Golla VII, had been promoted to Senior Associate.
Those credentials alone might have kept Bacquel known largely inside legal circles.
The Sara Duterte impeachment trial is changing that.
A young lawyer takes on high-stakes witnesses
Bacquel is part of Duterte’s broader defense team, which includes senior and prominent lawyers from Fortun, Narvasa and Salazar and other legal practitioners. GMA News earlier identified him as one of the lawyers who entered an appearance for the vice president in the impeachment proceedings.
By late August, however, Bacquel had begun attracting more attention because of his role in the courtroom.
He conducted portions of the defense cross-examination of Gina Acosta, the former special disbursing officer of the Office of the Vice President, whose testimony dealt extensively with confidential funds handled during Duterte’s tenure.
On September 1, Inquirer reported that Bacquel was also handling the defense questioning of retired Col. Manaros Boransing II, an Armed Forces of the Philippines officer called by prosecutors in connection with the Department of Education’s confidential fund spending.
That puts Bacquel directly inside one of the trial’s most consequential battles: what happened to confidential funds associated with offices headed by Duterte, and whether the supporting documents presented for those expenditures can withstand scrutiny.
The Gina Acosta cross-examination put Bacquel in the spotlight
Bacquel’s questioning of Acosta became notable for several reasons.
During one exchange, private prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan characterized an arrangement involving OVP confidential funds using the word “scam.” Bacquel objected that the question was argumentative.
Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero agreed that the wording was inappropriate and ordered the remark stricken from the record. Importantly, the impeachment court itself did not rule that the arrangement was a scam.
Bacquel also challenged the prosecution’s use of AI-generated images intended to illustrate bags supposedly containing ₱125 million in cash. The Philippine Star reported that Bacquel questioned whether the images accurately represented what prosecutors were attempting to demonstrate.
The exchanges gave viewers a closer look at Bacquel’s approach: frequent procedural objections, tightly framed questions and attempts to limit testimony or visual material the defense considers irrelevant, argumentative or insufficiently grounded.
But one meeting with a witness also drew questions
Bacquel himself later became part of a courtroom controversy after Acosta disclosed that she had met him before her testimony.
The House prosecution team questioned the timing of that meeting, pointing out that Acosta was appearing as a prosecution hostile witness.
Acosta said she had spoken with Bacquel while she was in Davao and indicated that the discussion involved how Senate proceedings would work. Reports said she maintained that Bacquel did not provide her with the questions he planned to ask during cross-examination.
The disclosure prompted questions from prosecutors about the contact, but publicly reported proceedings cited here have not established that Bacquel coached Acosta or committed wrongdoing.
That distinction matters as the impeachment fight becomes increasingly political and contentious.
Now comes the DepEd confidential fund battle
Bacquel’s latest courtroom assignment may carry even greater stakes.
On September 1, the prosecution presented retired Col. Manaros Boransing II as a witness as the trial turned again to the Department of Education’s confidential fund expenditures during Duterte’s tenure as education secretary.
The wider issue involves ₱112.5 million in DepEd confidential funds for 2023. Prosecutors have focused in part on military certifications submitted as supporting documents after the Commission on Audit raised questions about the expenditures.
A particularly scrutinized portion involves ₱15 million reportedly connected to payments for informants.
GMA News reported that former DepEd official and current Duterte defense lawyer Michael Poa previously told a House inquiry that he asked then-Undersecretary and retired Maj. Gen. Nolasco Mempin to seek certifications from military units.
Boransing and other military officials previously maintained that although they issued certifications, they were unaware that the documents would later be used in connection with DepEd’s liquidation of confidential fund expenditures.
In earlier testimony before the House, Boransing reportedly said he would not have issued the certification had he known how it would be used.
That is why his testimony — and the defense’s effort to challenge or contextualize it — could become significant.
More than a profile of a young lawyer
Bacquel is not the lead lawyer of Duterte’s defense team, but the trial has given him something many young attorneys do not encounter so early in their careers: a central role in proceedings being followed nationwide.
PhilSTAR Life similarly identifies him as part of Duterte’s defense team and confirms his Ateneo education, 2022 Bar admission and practice in arbitration, immigration and litigation.
The question surrounding Bacquel, therefore, is no longer simply who he is.
It is how significant his role could become as the defense confronts witnesses addressing the financial records, certifications and procedures behind the confidential funds controversy.
The Senate impeachment trial entered Day 20 on September 1, with prosecutors continuing to pursue testimony concerning DepEd’s confidential fund use. Duterte and her defense team are contesting the accusations against her, and allegations presented by prosecutors remain subject to evidence, cross-examination and the eventual judgment of the impeachment court.
For Bacquel, admitted to the Bar only four years ago, every major objection and cross-examination is now taking place on one of the biggest legal stages in the country.
And with the fight over the ₱112.5-million DepEd confidential fund moving closer to witnesses connected to the military certifications, his most consequential courtroom test may still be ahead.
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