PhilStarGlobal-Oct 8
A record-breaking fifteen executives from banks and insurers took the witness stand in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday, October 7, to authenticate documents that attest to her and her husband’s alleged wealth. Article II charges Duterte with amassing wealth disproportionate to her lawful income and failing to fully and truthfully disclose her and her husband Manases Carpio’s assets in her SALNs (statements of assets, liabilities and net worth) for 2022, 2023 and 2024. It also accuses her of failing to divest from businesses, as the Constitution requires of the president and vice president. In calling the bank and insurance witnesses, the prosecution sought to put on record the year-end balances in the couple’s accounts, so it can compare each year’s balance against the SALN for the same year. Prosecutors have argued the records are meant to establish a baseline of Duterte’s wealth and a “pattern of non-disclosure.” The marathon hearing on Wednesday laid out two clashing ways of reading Duterte’s finances. It’s the prosecution’s argument that there are serious indications of undeclared wealth just by comparing the SALN has pointed out that the Duterte couple had P59 million in bank balances at the end of 2022, her first year in office, against P13.325 million in declared “other personal properties.” The defense, meanwhile, has countered that transactions from before she took office are irrelevant and that not all the transactions being wielded as evidence by the prosecution were signed off by Duterte herself. Duterte and her husband have more than 30 to 40 total bank accounts across eight different banks, according to the prosecution. Read more at:
