Senate Impeachment Court Presiding Officer Francis Escudero has allowed the prosecution to present Vice President Sara Duterte’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) from 2007 – or those filed years before her vice presidency – for purposes of establishing a baseline.
During the resumption of Duterte’s impeachment trial on Tuesday, counsel for the prosecution James Bryan Ibrahim Alih presented Atty. Karen Batu, officer-in-charge of the Office of the Ombudsman’s Central Records Division, as their second witness for Article II of the Articles of Impeachment.
However, counsel for the defense Justin Nicol Gular objected to Alih’s offer of Batu’s testimony as it would touch on SALNs that were submitted before 2022, or prior to her term as Vice President. Escudero reminded Gular that the matter had been settled already when the Senate Impeachment Court ruled on the prosecution’s request for subpoenas.
‘We are particularly referring to purposes number 3, 4, and 9, Your Honor, as these refer to documents or SALNs, covering periods during which the respondent was not an impeachable officer, Your Honor,’ Gular said.
‘We reiterate, the ruling of Duterte v. House of Representatives that only matters in relation to the impeachable term that are committed or done allegedly in the impeachable – in relation to the position, Your Honor – are matters that can be and within the ambit of this impeachment court, Your Honor. We are therefore objecting on the ground of irrelevance and inadmissibility,’ he added.
‘The Chair would like to remind counsel for the respondent of the ruling of the Chair with respect to the issuance of the subpoenas covering the period 2007 up to 2025, that pursuant to OMB, Office of the Ombudsman vs. Bernardo GR No. 181598 dated March 2013, there is a necessity to establish the baseline, not for the prosecution but equally for the respondent, in order to find out what is the base figure for the computation of the SALN during her term,’ Escudero noted.
According to Escudero, there will be no additional charges against Duterte beyond those mentioned in the Articles of Impeachment, and the SALNs from 2007 to 2021 will be used only to establish a baseline.
‘The chair also clarified when it ruled in favor of granting the subpoena that we are not adding to the charges against the Vice President for supposed acts committed to her term as Vice President, the only ones she’s being charged of before the impeachment court would be those committed during her term as Vice President from 2022 up to the present,’ Escudero said.
‘And whatever it is that may be shown is only for purposes of establishing a baseline and not adding to the charges already made in the Articles of Impeachment that are outside her term. We will register your continuing objection Atty. Justin, with respect to offers No. 3, 4, and 9,’ he added.
Offers No. 3, 4, and 9 made by Alih pertains to the following matters that will be testified upon by Batu:
to prove the net worth declared by Duterte from 2007 to 2025, including its components, like the amount of cash, and other personal properties she declared for those years
to prove that based on Duterte’s own declarations under oath in her SALNs for 2007 to 2025, her declared net worth, as well as that of her spouse, Atty. Manases Carpio, increased from P7,250,497.00 in 2007 to P65,308,841.00 in 2021, and to P98,656,131.20 in 2025, or by around P91 million
to identify and authenticate the certified true copies of the SALNs of Duterte for the years 2007 to 2012 and 2016 to 2025
Aside from these matters, Gular said the defense is willing to stipulate on Offer No. 1 of the prosecution, or the matter of Batu’s position as officer-in-charge of the Office of the Ombudsman’s Records Division, and that the Office of the Ombudsman is the repository of SALNs from presidents and vice presidents.
Article II deals with allegations that Duterte has unexplained wealth, and that she failed to declare it in her SALN. Batu, meanwhile, first appeared in relation to the impeachment proceedings against Duterte when the House of Representatives’ committee on justice was discussing the two impeachment complaints last April.
During the committee on justice’s hearing on April 22, Batu confirmed the veracity of Duterte’s SALNs from 2007 to 2024.
Duterte’s SALNs from 2007 and 2024 have been deemed by lawmakers as significant to allegations of unexplained wealth. During the discussions on the sufficiency in substance of the two impeachment complaints against Duterte, Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said that the Vice President’s net worth from 2007 to 2024 rose by 1,000 percent.
Ridon, who eventually became a member of the prosecution team and was appointed co-team leader for Article II, said that there was an increase in the Vice President’s net worth that is not proportionate to her salary – with her net worth rising by over 1,000 percent from 2008 to 2024.
Ridon explained that Duterte’s SALN in 2008 showed a net worth of P18.49 million, while her net worth in her 2023 SALN grew to P77.50 million and P88.51 million for 2024 – representing a 378 percent increase from 2008 to 2024. However, the lawmaker noted that if figures were based on Duterte’s 2007 SALN – the first year that she became a public official – the jump from a net worth of P7.2 million to 2024’s P88.51 million represents a 1,120 percent spike.