ALL properties owned by married couples must be declared in the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) regardless of which spouse actually purchased the said property.
Counsel for the prosecution Atty. Lorna Kapunan said there was no distinction between real property owned by either spouse when it comes to the filing of SALNs because under the Family Code, everything is presumed to be absolute community of property.
Under the law, all properties owned by the spouses before their marriage and all those acquired during the marriage are considered equally owned by both.
As an expert in family law, Kapunan explained that absolute community of property applies to couples married after 1988.
“If you got married before 1988, it is conjugal. However, if you got married after 1988, it is absolute community. The difference for conjugal is that the property registered to one person is personal property, while the income generated from it is conjugal property,” Kapunan said during a post-trial news briefing Thursday.
Based on jurisprudence, Kapunan noted that whenever the words “married to” is written in the listing of ownership of property, it means that that property is owned by both spouses.
“So, even if hindi nakalagay specifically owned by by Sara Duterte, maski na wala ‘yung pangalan ni Mans (Manases Carpio), kunwari ‘yung property na ‘yan, Sara Duterte lang, wala si Mans or Mans, wala si Sara, it’s still presumed absolute community,” Kapunan said.
With regard to the impeachment trial of the Vice President, Kapunan said that each and every property owned by either Duterte or her husband Carpio, should have been included in the SALN of Duterte.
“Regardless of whether eight million ba ‘yan, six million ba ‘yan, one point something million, that has nothing to do with the amount and everything to do with the non-disclosure of that real property in the SALN, which is subscribed and signed, meaning everything there is true, true and accurate,” Kapunan said.
Failure to do this, Kapunan said, would be tantamount to perjury.
House lead prosecutor, Atty. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro of Batangas said the prosecution was able to establish in its presentation of the Land Registration Authority officials from Davao City and Samal that the Vice President allegedly failed to include two properties located in Davao.
“I believe that the prosecution was able to establish that these two properties, described by TCT number and by its location, one is in Samal and the other is in Matina, apparently does not appear or do not appear in the SALN of the respondent Vice President,” Luistro said.
Based on the explanation provided by the defense team of the Vice President, the property under the name of Carpio that is located in Matina Crossing in Davao City, was actually listed in the SALN of Duterte in its other known location of Barangay 74-A.
Luistro said that this was not a valid explanation for the non-listing of the property because “In the preparation of SALN, you have to disclose also the references.”
“If it is covered by a title, you have to indicate the TCT number. If it is tax declaration, you have to indicate the TD number. So, since the TCT number of these two properties do not appear in the SALN, for the prosecution it is a clear establishment already that it’s not in the SALN, without making conclusion of fact or conclusion of law,” Luistro said.
“Ang question lang, ‘yung bang dalawang TCT number na ‘yun, nakita sa SALN? I think the answer is no,” she added.
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