By Jose Cielito Reganit | Philippine News Agency
The House Committee on Justice voted Wednesday not to open the sealed box of tax records submitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) containing the income tax returns of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio.
After hearing the presentations of several members, six voted to open the BIR box, 38 to keep it sealed, and zero abstained.
At issue was the National Internal Revenue Code, which requires that tax documents requested for congressional inquiry be examined in executive session and in aid of legislation, conditions some lawmakers argued the impeachment proceedings do not satisfy.
The BIR submitted the sealed box to the Committee on Justice during the April 22 hearing in response to a subpoena issued to review the allegations of unexplained wealth against Duterte, specifically whether her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) accurately reflect her and her husband’s assets.
For Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., the box should remain sealed and be left to the Senate to open during the impeachment trial, given overwhelming evidence that the impeachment case will proceed to trial.
Other lawmakers, such as Senior Deputy Majority Leader Lorenz Defensor of Iloilo and Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima, however, argued that the committee’s request was not a simple congressional inquiry but a constitutionally mandated subpoena.
They also stressed that impeachment proceedings, as a mechanism for holding the highest public officials accountable, supersede the statutory requirements of ordinary legislation.
De Lima, who earlier moved to open the box, reiterated her position during Wednesday’s hearing, saying the committee has both the authority and constitutional mandate to examine Duterte’s tax records, as these were subpoenaed by the House and directly relevant to the allegation of unexplained wealth.
She also argued that it would be premature for the House to transmit the tax documents to the Senate unsealed, as the committee members would serve as prosecutors should the case reach trial and would need to be aware of the contents.
Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre agreed with De Lima, saying that the truth lies in the documents themselves. He said the only way to uncover it is to “examine them, not to judge but to clarify,” and to compare them against the Vice President’s other financial records, including the bank transactions reported by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and her SALNs.
Meanwhile, Manila Rep. Joel Chua said that while opening the box falls within the committee’s constitutional mandate, the panel should “err on the side of caution for now” and exercise that power only when it becomes strictly necessary—after determining probable cause.
Deputy Speaker Janette Garin of Iloilo also shared the same sentiment, as well as Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno, who noted that the committee’s immediate task is to determine whether probable cause exists, and not to resolve the question of the sealed box, particularly given that sufficient evidence has already been presented without it.
Other members who voted to keep the box sealed also recognized the committee’s authority to open it, but cautioned that doing so could give the Duterte camp new grounds to question the proceedings on jurisdictional and procedural issues—potentially derailing the case, as happened with the first impeachment bid.
The vote now effectively bars the committee from examining the financial documents during the impeachment proceedings in the House.
After the voting, Defensor moved to keep the sealed box as part of the official records and to transmit it to the Senate should the case reach trial, a motion duly seconded by the committee.
