The House prosecution panel in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte said the defense team’s opposition to the release of her bank records raises serious questions as the Senate impeachment court weighs the prosecution’s subpoena request.
House prosecution panel spokesperson Benjamin Tolosa said if the Vice President wanted to disprove allegations regarding the amounts reflected in her financial records, she should voluntarily present the documents.
“Kung gusto po talagang patunayan na ang amounts ng bank records nila… ay hindi ganyan kalaki, hindi ho ba e dapat sila mismo nga ang magpakita nitong mga bank records nila?” Tolosa said in an interview.
He added that the defense’s efforts to block the release of the records only fuel public doubts.
“So ‘yung fact na talagang pinipigilan nila na lumabas ito, meron hong malaking katanungan talaga ‘yan na pinapakita sa atin,” he said.
During the sixth day of the impeachment trial on July 15, Duterte’s defense team urged the Senate impeachment court to deny the prosecution’s request to subpoena the Vice President’s bank and tax records. The court deferred its ruling and is expected to resume deliberations when the trial continues on Monday.
Tolosa said the prosecution remains confident that the impeachment court will approve the subpoena request, arguing that it is backed by strong legal grounds.
He maintained that the impeachment court is not bound by bank secrecy laws and has the authority to access Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) records as part of the proceedings.
According to Tolosa, the financial records are among the prosecution’s strongest pieces of evidence in proving allegations of unexplained wealth and false declarations in Duterte’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).
Despite this, he said the impeachment case does not rely solely on the bank documents, noting that the prosecution also has testimonial and documentary evidence to support the articles of impeachment.
Tolosa stressed, however, that the prosecution will continue to push for the presentation of the records, saying these would help establish whether the Vice President’s actual wealth matched the assets she declared while in public office.
He also cited what he described as a significant discrepancy between Duterte’s declared net worth of around P80 million and the P6.7 billion in covered and suspicious bank transactions linked to Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, as disclosed by the AMLC during a House committee hearing in April.
