A sealed box containing the income tax returns (ITRs) of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband could become a crucial piece of evidence in the impeachment proceedings against her.
According to House Committee on Justice chairperson Rep. Gerville Luistro, the unopened Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) records may help determine whether the couple’s declared wealth matches either Duterte’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) or the billions of pesos in transactions flagged in an Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report, though she noted that reconciling both sets of records at the same time may prove difficult.
“I agree to that because the SALN and the AMLC report are contradictory. So, if the ITR will be able to explain the SALN, definitely it cannot explain the AMLC report,” Luistro said.
“But if it can explain the AMLC report, definitely it will not be able to explain the SALN,” she added.
The Batangas lawmaker confirmed that the sealed BIR box was among the documents collected during the House justice panel’s hearings and would be transmitted to the Senate if the House plenary approves the impeachment complaint against Duterte.
The impeachment proceedings have centered partly on allegations involving Duterte’s wealth, including the rise in her declared net worth from P7.25 million in 2007 to P88.51 million in 2024. Lawmakers also examined AMLC records allegedly showing around P6.7 billion in covered and suspicious transactions linked to Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio.
The controversy over the AMLC findings intensified after lawyer Peter Paul Danao, speaking on behalf of Carpio, claimed that the Bank of the Philippine Islands clarified that a reported “P2 billion” transaction was actually only “P2 million,” allegedly due to a system glitch.
Meanwhile, a Quezon City Regional Trial Court dismissed Carpio’s petition seeking to stop the House Committee on Justice from enforcing subpoenas related to his tax records and other documents tied to the impeachment proceedings. The court ruled that the judiciary could not interfere with the House’s constitutional impeachment powers.
Luistro said the justice panel never opened the sealed BIR box during the hearings, despite issuing a subpoena duces tecum requesting the income tax returns of Duterte and her spouse.
“Well, actually ang laman po nung kahon, I believe are ITRs sapagkat ‘yan po ang sinubpoena namin,” Luistro said, adding that the committee still does not know what specific income figures appear in the documents because the box remained unopened.
She explained that the tax returns could clarify whether the couple’s declared income supports either the SALN figures, the AMLC transactions, both, or neither.
Luistro also questioned how Duterte and her husband’s declared net worth reached P88 million when, based on their salaries alone, the amount should have been significantly lower.
“Yun pong P88 million na net worth sa SALN, kasi pag kinuwenta niyo po yung sweldo nila, P30 million lang dapat. But it’s P88 million,” Luistro said.
She added that the ITRs could reveal whether the couple had substantial business income that may explain the increase in wealth.
Despite its potential significance, Luistro clarified that the sealed BIR box has not yet been formally considered evidence because its contents have not been examined by the committee.
“But we are interested to see what is inside as well. And we honestly believe that if we transmit this to the Senate, the Senate will be in a better position to open this,” she said.