Impeach Court To Tackle VP Tax, Bank Records

The Senate impeachment court will next tackle the subpoenaed bank and tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio as well as their businesses as part of the Article II for alleged unexplained wealth of the Vice President. 

This means the court will dispense with the prosecution’s presentation on the alleged confidential funds misuse (Article I), which has been allotted 31 trial dates based on the pre-trial order, impeachment court spokesman Reginald Tongol told radio dwIZ on Saturday, Aug. 1. 

The prosecution is done with its presentation of evidence on grave threats (Article 4) made by the Vice President in a livestreamed press conference in November 2024 that she has allegedly hired a hitman to kill President Marcos, First Lady Liza Marcos and former House speaker Martin Romualdez if she would be killed first. 

Tongol said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has complied with the subpoena of the Vice President’s tax and bank records, and submitted to the Senate four red boxes on Thursday, July 30.

These boxes contain the tax records of the Duterte couple, as well as the tax records of 19 corporate entities and one law firm tied to the couple. 

The subpoenaed documents covered the period 2007 to 2025, including the time when Duterte was Davao city mayor and vice mayor.

The court allowed the documents covering the time when Duterte was not yet an impeachable officer to establish the financial baseline of her wealth as Vice President. 

Besides the BIR, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), BDO Unibank, Philippine Savings Bank, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company, Landbank of the Philippines and Security Bank Corporation have complied with the subpoena on relevant documents to the Duterte couple.

The AMLC has furnished the court with copies of its reports on covered and suspicious transactions involving Duterte and her husband. 

The court secretariat will be busy photocopying these “voluminous documents” so that all parties – prosecution, defense and the senator-judges – will be provided copies, Tongol said. 

Both the prosecution and defense can choose which documents are relevant to their case, but these need to be pre-marked before being presented in court. 

“Not all these documents will be used by the prosecution or defense. They will only choose which ones could help them prove their respective theories. They would have to spend a little more time analyzing each and every document,” Tongol said.  

“The defense, as part of their discovery rights, can also use these documents and mark them as common evidence that could either prove their theory or destroy that of the prosecution,” he added. 

In his July 20 ruling, presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero said the grant of the subpoena “is merely a preliminary procedural step and does not, by itself, authorize the disclosure, inspection or admission of the requested tax records into evidence.”

Not automatic

The defense team stressed that the admissibility of the tax records of the Vice President and her husband is not automatic, even if the President has given the green light to open the BIR boxes.

Defense spokesman Michael Poa said they may employ legal remedies to question the decision of the President.

“Not just the legal remedies outside the impeachment court but within the proceedings itself. We can still object if we think that there are things that should not be admitted as evidence here,” Poa said. 

The documents may shed light on Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth and the supposed discrepancies in her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

“It’s complicated because for now it’s just procedural. Since the President has already approved, the BIR has already submitted (the tax records),” Poa said. 

The Senate impeachment court last week approved the prosecution’s request to subpoena the tax and bank records of Duterte and her husband.

“I’ll simplify it. Before a piece of evidence is admissible, it should be competent, according to the law, and it should be relevant, meaning relevant to the alleged proof,” Poa added.  

“If we think we need to protect the rights of not only our clients but also third parties, or private individuals that may be affected because of these tax returns, of course we will not have second thoughts of raising it before the impeachment court,” Poa added. 

Poa said they anticipated Marcos’ approval to open the BIR boxes. 

“That’s within his discretion. But right now it’s too early because we still need to study and look at the documents if these will really be released,” Poa added. 

Poa refused to comment on the observation that the authorization of Marcos was politically motivated.  

Poa also maintained that the defense team is not afraid of the documents inside the BIR boxes.

“What we’re trying to do is to have evidence according to the law, and that’s what we were really standing on,” Poa said. – With an additional report from Bella Cariaso