The prosecution panel in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte plans to refer alleged tax violations involving the Vice President and firms linked to her husband to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), a House prosecutor said.
House prosecutor and Lanao del Sur 1st District Representative Zia Alonto Adiong said the panel intends to share the financial documents it has gathered with the BIR. He noted that the documents are already part of the public record, having been presented during the proceedings, and said the BIR has reportedly already issued a letter of authority.
What the prosecution alleges
The prosecution points to two sets of alleged tax violations. The first is a P111.85-million gap it alleges between Vice President Duterte's declared income and what it describes as conjugal unexplained wealth based on bank inflows from 2022 to 2025. According to records presented by the prosecution, bank inflows for the Vice President and her husband, Manases Carpio, totaled P174.96 million in that period, against a declared income of P63.11 million.
The second set concerns firms the prosecution links to Manases Carpio — Metro City Chow Inc., Cale88 Foods Corp. and GenCorp. The prosecution alleges discrepancies of hundreds of millions of pesos between the companies' audited financial statements and the inflows recorded in their bank accounts.
The figures were presented by forensic financial analyst Alexander Cabrera, whose analysis of income tax returns, bank records and other financial documents forms part of the prosecution's case. Cabrera estimated unexplained wealth and undeclared assets involving the couple at P817.87 million and said the amount could reach at least P1.5 billion for 2022 to 2025.
The prosecution's evidence and the defense
The prosecution panel earlier said it no longer planned to call the Vice President to the witness stand, saying the documents already presented were sufficient to establish its case.
Vice President Duterte's camp has previously dismissed the allegations against her as politically motivated. None of the allegations has been proven, and any tax case would be for the BIR to investigate and decide whether to file.