Simple presentation planned on VP’s wealth

MANILA, Philippines — Impeachment prosecutors will narrow their evidence to key financial reports to avoid dragging Vice President Sara Duterte’s trial beyond the year and help make proceedings easier to follow, a lawmaker said on Sunday, as the case enters the unexplained wealth charge.

Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon, who will lead the charge that Duterte has undeclared wealth, said they must be “very precise” with the witnesses and documents they will present.

“Our witness presentation needs to be very precise, because there are really a lot of documents being discussed,” he told dzRH radio in Filipino.

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Prosecutors have more than 1,800 bank, tax and relevant financial documents covering Duterte, her husband, lawyer Maneses “Mans” Carpio, and the companies linked to them, according to Ridon. That trove of evidence could take months of trial time if all were presented, he said.

“We’re talking about the crates upon crates of submissions from banks and financial institutions,” he said in Filipino. “If we go through each one, we might not even finish within the year.”

The Senate impeachment court is set to hear on Monday the third of the four articles elevated by the House in May, which advanced Duterte’s trial on acts that lawmakers believe had rendered her unfit for office.

READ: VP Duterte challenged to attend trial scrutiny of unexplained wealth

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Her trial has entered its second month, with prosecutors having presented claims that she threatened President Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

The second charge, which wrapped last week, focused on claims that she improperly spent P612.5 million in confidential funds assigned to her office and the Department of Education, which she headed from 2022 to 2024.

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First string of witnesses

Prosecutors had lined up three officials as their witnesses for next week’s proceedings, including former anti-graft court chief Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, who is expected to testify on matters involving accountability and upholding office integrity.

Also listed were anti-corruption office representative Ombudsman Records Division Officer-in-Charge Karen Batu and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) company and registration department director Gerardo del Rosario.

Also on Sunday, prosecutorial team adviser Robert Ace Barbers said SEC documents and property records will test the accuracy of Duterte’s net worth statements.

“When you go into business, you register your corporation. That’s where we see whether it’s earning or losing. And if it did earn, was that reflected in the net worth?” he told dzBB radio in Filipino.

AMLC report

Prosecutors also claim that Duterte did not disclose her business ties in her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) while in office. Article VII, Sec. 13 of the 1987 Constitution prohibits officials from engaging “in any business, or be financially interested in any contract with, or in any franchise.”

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is also expected to present its report on the P6.7 billion worth of transactions it had flagged that flowed through Duterte and Carpio’s account over the past two decades, Ridon said.

Of the P6.7 billion in “covered” and “suspicious” transactions, P4.42 billion flowed into the accounts, P1.55 billion was transferred out, and around P791 million was not verified whether it was an inflow or an outflow, according to the AMLC summary report in April.

‘Term of office’

Ridon said prosecutors would focus on Duterte’s SALN from 2022 onwards, covering her term of office, while also reviewing earlier filings to check for trends in her financial activity and establish the broader context of her wealth.

“As much as possible, we would want to confine ourselves within the term of office,” he said.

Duterte’s net worth had hovered in the tens of millions of pesos in the past years. In 2025, her SALN showed P98.6 million, an 11 percent increase from P88.5 million in 2024.

Duterte’s net worth stood at P7.25 million in 2007, when she was first elected vice mayor of Davao City. After five years, it rose to P22 million by 2012.

After a three-year break from public office, her net worth stood at P34.89 million in 2016, the same year her father Rodrigo Duterte was elected president.

In 2017, her net worth grew to P44.82 million, then to P49.69 million in 2018.

It reached P55.61 million in 2019, P56.58 million in 2020, and P65.30 million in 2021.

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Her net worth in 2022, the year she became Vice President, was P71.05 million. A year later, it hit P77.50 million. /cb