VP Sara's Tax Records Sent to Impeachment Court After Presidential Approval

MANILA, Philippines — The tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband have been submitted to the Senate impeachment court following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s authorization for their release, it was confirmed Tuesday. House prosecutor Rep. Terry Ridon (Bicol Saro) confirmed this development, while Palace Press Officer Claire Castro separately affirmed it in a press briefing Thursday, July 30. "Whatever the law requires, the president will follow," Castro said in Filipino. "If that entails giving his approval to the BIR, and if this is for the truth, he won't deprive this from the people." Representatives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) submitted the documents to the office of Senate Secretary Rey Bantug, the clerk of the impeachment court, on Thursday, complying with the court's subpoena. Thursday was the deadline set in that subpoena. Representatives of BDO and Metrobank have also submitted subpoenaed bank records of Duterte. The bank and tax records of the vice president are central to Article II of the articles of impeachment, which alleges "unexplained wealth." At the heart of the prosecution’s argument for this charge is the allegation that P6.77 billion in large and suspicious transactions flowed through Duterte and her husband’s bank accounts from 2006 to 2025. During the House justice panel that held initial hearings on the impeachment complaints, lawmakers argued this movement in Duterte’s accounts did not square with the amounts she declared in her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). Prosecutors have said they intend to directly compare the SALNs against the bank flows and the income reported to tax authorities. The impeachment court granted the prosecution's subpoena request for Duterte’s bank, tax, and AMLC records on July 20. Presiding officer Sen. Chiz Escudero, however, held that the subpoena alone was not enough for the court to be given the BIR records. He ruled the defense "correctly invoked" Section 71 of the Tax Code, which allows taxpayer records to be opened only under specific exceptions: authorization by the president, a request from a foreign tax authority with presidential approval, or the taxpayer's own waiver. The court had returned a sealed BIR box containing Duterte's record on the first day of the trial for the same reason. In its ruling, the impeachment court limited the use of Duterte and Mans Carpio's financial and tax records covering 2007 to 2021 to merely establishing Duterte's financial baseline, and not to prove new impeachable offenses.