HOUSE prosecutors are tracing whether Vice President Sara Z. Duterte’s declared net worth of about P98.6 million at the end of 2025 can be reconciled with her legitimate income and financial records, and may eventually call her to explain any discrepancies before the Senate impeachment court.
“Merong intensyon kami pagkatapos nito tawagin siyang witness para mabigyan siya ng pagkakataon na makapagpaliwanag,” House prosecution legal spokesperson and counsel Benjamin “Jay” Tolosa Jr. said at the Saturday News Forum at Dapo Restaurant in Quezon City.
The prosecution is establishing its case under Article II of the Articles of Impeachment, which accuses the Vice President of unexplained wealth, inaccurate wealth declarations and failure to divest from business interests while in office.
Duterte’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs), presented through the Office of the Ombudsman, showed her declared net worth rising from P7.25 million in 2007, when she entered public office as Davao City vice mayor, to P98.66 million in 2025.
Presiding Officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero has limited the use of records from before the Vice President assumed office in 2022 to establishing a financial baseline, rather than proving separate impeachable offenses from her earlier years in public service.
Using that baseline, prosecutors are seeking to determine whether the increase in the Vice President’s declared wealth during her current term is consistent with her lawful income, tax records, bank activity and business interests.
The prosecution has begun laying that documentary trail through the Vice President’s own sworn SALNs.
An Ombudsman official testified that the Vice President separately declared cash on hand or in bank in several earlier SALNs but reported no such cash from 2019 through 2025.
The same witness also testified that several SALNs listed business interests without corresponding shares of stock or acquisition costs.
Prosecutors are now moving beyond the SALNs to corporate, tax, bank and other independent records to determine whether they correspond with what the Vice President declared.
Among the records prosecutors intend to examine are Anti-Money Laundering Council data covering P6.77 billion in aggregate covered and suspicious transactions involving the Vice President and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, from 2006 to 2025.
Of the total, P3.77 billion involved the Vice President and P2.99 billion Carpio.
The P6.77 billion represents cumulative transaction volume over nearly two decades and is not equivalent to the couple’s net worth.
Prosecutors are examining those financial movements alongside the Vice President’s declared assets, lawful income and business interests to determine whether the records can be reconciled.
Tolosa said prosecutors do not need the Vice President herself to authenticate the documentary evidence.
He said Duterte’s SALNs can be authenticated by their official custodians, while representatives of banks and other institutions can identify records originating from them.
Instead, prosecutors are considering calling the Vice President after completing the documentary presentation so senator-judges can hear her explanation of any issues raised by the records.
Tolosa stressed that no final decision has been made.
“’Yung final decision on that would be made pagkatapos namin magpresenta ng lahat ng ebidensya namin,” he said.
metrosundaily
