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Renalyn Ramirez - Philstar.com
June 26, 2026 | 11:23am
The Senate impeachment court resumes the marking of evidence on the third day of pretrial proceedings on June 23, 2026.
Senate of the Philippines via Facebook
MANILA, Philippines — The House prosecution panel announced that the pre-trial conference officially ended on its fifth day on Thursday evening, June 25, but its motion to open the sealed box containing the tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, Mans Carpio, was opposed by the defense team.
“The defense registered their vehement objection to the opening. They invoked due process even though no rights are being violated here because this is just a marking of exhibit,” lead prosecutor and Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville Luistro said in mixed Filipino and English during a press briefing.
The House prosecutors announced earlier this week that they had filed a motion before the Senate impeachment court seeking to open the sealed box for the marking of evidence.
“We requested the impeachment court and the defense to join us in our position to open the sealed box because after all, we received that sealed box in our exercise of our compulsory process during the hearing of the Justice Committee of the House of Representatives,” Luistro explained.
Relevant evidence
The contents of the box, according to the prosecutors, are relevant to proving or disproving the allegations of unexplained wealth against Duterte.
“This is very relevant because we will be able to know, to present before the impeachment court the lawful personal income of the respondent and the spouse,” Luistro said. “And by knowing their lawful income, [they may justify their] acquisitions.”
The sealed box was submitted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to the House Committee on Justice during an April hearing following a subpoena for the tax records of Duterte and her husband.
After discussing whether to open the box, the majority of the House justice committee voted to keep it sealed, saying the clarificatory hearing did not satisfy the conditions under the National Internal Revenue Code.
The box remained sealed when it was transmitted to the Senate impeachment court.
‘What’s in there to fear?’
Luistro said that after learning of the defense team's objection to opening the box, the prosecutors proposed simply marking the sealed box itself, but Duterte's defense opposed that as well.
“Ako nagtataka kung ano kayang nakakatakot sa pagmamarka ng sealed box? Selyado nga ang pinamamarkahan ng prosecution because they do not want to open the box. Ang pinamamarkahan na lang is 'yung sealed box,” Luistro said.
(I am curious, what’s scary about marking a sealed box? The prosecution was proposing to mark just the sealed box because they do not want to open the box. We settled on just marking the sealed box.)
According to Luistro, the prosecutors are prepared to let the impeachment court decide whether to open the box based on that proposal.
The lawmaker added that the House of Representatives respected the majority's decision not to open the box upon receiving it despite believing that the public deserves to know its contents.
“We decided not to open because we believe in the power of the impeachment court, eh pagdating ho pala namin dito sa impeachment court, mahihirapan pa rin kami sa pagbubukas ng BIR box,” Luistro said.
(We decided not to open because we believe in the power of the impeachment court, and yet we still encountered difficulties opening the BIR box when we arrived here.)
