House Committee on Public Accounts chairperson Terry Ridon on Tuesday said the next impeachment hearing against Vice President Sara Duterte this Wednesday will be more consequential, as the House Committee on Justice is set to rely primarily on financial documents, tax records, and bank transactions in determining probable cause over allegations of ill-gotten and unexplained wealth.
“Mas mabigat ang susunod na pagdinig sa impeachment ng pangalawang pangulo dahil wala nang star witness na pag-uusapan. Hindi na mga personalidad ang sentro ng usapan—mga dokumento na mismo ang magsasalita (The next impeachment hearing of the Vice President will carry more weight since there is no more star witness to talk about. The discussion will not anymore center on personalities – it will be the documents which will do the talking),” Ridon said in an interview.
Officials from the Office of the Ombudsman, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) are expected to attend Wednesday’s hearing to provide the Justice Committee with Duterte’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), income tax returns, corporate records of her husband Manases Carpio, and reports on any suspicious bank transactions involving the couple’s accounts.
Ridon said the documents to be submitted by these agencies will allow lawmakers to independently assess whether there is a significant discrepancy in the vice president’s wealth beyond the PHP88.5 million net worth declared in her 2024 SALN.
He said the Committee on Justice will need to determine the threshold for material discrepancy, whether a substantial variance between declared and actual assets would constitute a sufficient basis for a finding of unexplained wealth.
“Kung makita ng komite na ang totoong kayamanan ng pangalawang pangulo ay halos doble na ng kanyang SALN, malinaw na puwede itong maging sapat na batayan para sa probable cause ng unexplained wealth (If the committee finds that the real wealth for the Vice President is almost double her SALN, it is clearly a sufficient basis for probable cause of unexplained wealth),” Ridon said.
When asked whether the committee will examine the bank accounts and transactions cited by former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Ridon said the panel must first establish whether the accounts are indeed attributable to the vice president.
Trillanes has been subpoenaed to attend the next hearing, following his claim that over PHP2.4 billion in transactions allegedly occurred from 2006 to 2015 across multiple Duterte family accounts, including joint accounts with the vice president.
He also claimed to possess bank ledgers showing deposit patterns allegedly linked to manager’s checks associated with illegal drug transactions, involving accounts under the names of Sara Duterte during her tenure as vice mayor, as well as those of Rodrigo Duterte’s wife and son.
The vice president faces allegations of having deposited at least PHP111 million across various banks in Davao City and Metro Manila from 2006 to 2015, amounts that complainants argue are grossly disproportionate to her salary as former vice mayor and mayor of Davao City.
Ridon also flagged a previously noted PHP50-million alleged discrepancy in her declared wealth, which has since risen to PHP88 million in 2024. (PNA)