Manila: Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima on Wednesday raised doubts about the completeness and reliability of Vice President Sara Duterte's financial disclosures, pointing to the disappearance of declared cash on hand or cash in bank from 2019 to 2024, the shift of reported liabilities solely to her husband beginning 2021, and the rapid rise in declared net worth over the same period.
According to Philippines News Agency, during the House Committee on Justice hearing on the impeachment complaints against Duterte, de Lima observed that there was no cash in the bank or cash on hand declared or reported in the 2019-2024 statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs) despite such declarations in earlier SALNs.
'Para sa akin po ang biglaan at tuloy-tuloy na pagkawala ng deklarasyon ng liquid assets, because cash on hand and cash in bank are liquid assets, sa kabila ng dati meron naman na mga halaga ng mga cash on hand, cash in bank, ay nagdudulot ng pagdududa sa kawastuhan at kabuuan ng subsequent SALNs ni VP Sara (For me, the sudden and continuous disappearance of the declaration of liquid assets, such as cash on hand and cash on bank, despite having a previous declaration of such, causes doubts in the veracity and completeness of subsequent SALNs of VP Duterte),' she pointed out.
She also highlighted a noticeable break in the SALN pattern for liabilities from 2016 to 2020, where Duterte reported almost PHP7 million in liabilities that gradually decreased to about PHP2.5 million. In 2021 onwards, Duterte has not declared any liability while her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, declared a personal loan as liability.
'Your Honor, I am reading from 2021 SALN submitted by the VP and it is stated there that the liabilities was a personal loan from various creditors po by Atty. Manases Carpio,' lawyer Karen Batu of the Central Records Division of the Office of the Ombudsman replied. 'For the 2023 SALN, Your Honor, based on the submitted SALN by the Vice President, the liabilities declared therein was a personal loan of Manases Carpio, Your Honor,' she added, confirming further that the same goes for the 2024 SALN.
De Lima underscored that this was not a minor technical change in the SALN forms but a pattern that, in her view, deserved closer scrutiny because it could point to changes in classification or reporting that affected the full picture of the Vice President's financial disclosures.
She also pointed to the pace of the increase in Duterte's declared net worth as reflected in the matrix shown to the panel during the hearing. 'The respondents declared net worth increased from 34,895,997 in 2016 to 71,658,841 in 2022, the year she assumed the office of Vice President. Sa loob lamang ng dalawang taon, ito ay lalo pang umakyat sa PHP88,512,370.22 noong 2024 (In just two years, it further rose to PHP88.5 million),' she observed.
Taken together, de Lima said, the combination of rising net worth, the disappearance of declared liquid assets, and the transfer or diminution of liabilities raised serious questions that the committee could not simply brush aside in its ongoing examination of Duterte's SALNs.
