INSURANCE policies and investments purchased or made by Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, Atty. Manases Carpio, as well as 51 guns they own, are also not listed in the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) of the country’s second-highest official.
Prosecution panel adviser and spokesman Ace Barbers told a news briefing on Tuesday that these unlisted assets are on top of tens of millions in yearend bank balances of the Duterte-Carpio couple from 2022 to 2025.
Barbers said based on records submitted by financial institutions to the Senate impeachment court, the Vice President and her husband had “insurance plus investments” worth P59.6 million in 2024.
This amount was in addition to the yearend balance of P22.24 million in the couple’s “more than 30 accounts in eight banks,” he said.
Likewise not declared were 22 guns owned by the Vice President and 29 firearms registered under her husband, Barbers added. Awitness from the Philippine National Police had estimated that the guns were worth P7.22 million.
Barbers pointed out that based on her SALNs, the Vice President did not declare any “cash on hand and cash in bank” from 2019 to 2025.
The Vice President’s camp has claimed that cash and other assets were included in the item for “other personal properties” in her SALNs.
Even if assuming this to be true, Barbers said there would still be a huge gap between the declaration for “others” and bank balances, insurance and investments.
The insurance plus investments of P59.6 million and P22.24-million yearend 2024 bank balance, excluding the 51 guns, far exceeded the declare value for “others” of P21.13 million, he pointed out.
Barbers said clearly, the Vice President’s declarations in her SALNs, when contrasted with her bank balances and other assets, were not truthful.
He stressed that a SALN is a sworn declaration where a government official or employee should make truthful statements on her assets, including cash, liabilities and net worth.
The prosecution had presented former Sandiganbayan Justice Amparo Cabotaje Tang as its expert witness on SALN, which every government official or employee is required under the law to file every year.
Tang has told senator-judges that the law allows a filer to make a correction if he or she makes one or two mistakes.
But repeated mistakes or omissions are a sign of an attempt on the part of the filer to hide certain assets, she said.
metrosundaily
