Sara Duterte trial recap, Oct. 8: BIR details Duterte's income, confirms tax audit

MANILA, Philippines — A Bureau of Internal Revenue official told the impeachment court on Thursday, October 8, that Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband earned a combined P85.34 million in income net of tax from 2007 to 2025, and confirmed the bureau has issued a letter of authority to audit one of them.

Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez, chief of staff at the BIR Office of the Commissioner, testified on Article II of the complaint, which accuses Duterte of accumulating unexplained wealth. 

She took the stand only in the afternoon after the defense objected to a prosecution request to present forensic analyst Alexander Cabrera first because private prosecutor Erwin Matib, who was handling her direct examination, was ill. Presiding officer Sen. Chiz Escudero instead called an early lunch on Sen. Tito Sotto’s motion.

Over defense objections, Escudero ruled the BIR records are public documents that cannot be prevented from being shown on screen. 

Defense counsel Kristine Ferrer, citing the Data Privacy Act, asked that the tax returns not be shown publicly, a concern Sen. Pia Cayetano shared.

 The court allowed the BIR’s summaries to be displayed but barred the source documents.

Here are the three highlights from Thursday’s proceedings.

1. Income compared with declared net worth

Matib pointed to a gap between Duterte and Manases Carpio's combined income of P85.34 million and the P98.66 million net worth Duterte declared in her 2025 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). 

Escudero sided with Ferrer, who objected that the witness had no personal knowledge of the SALN, but did not strike the remark, reminding Matib not to “testify for the witness.”

The couple’s audited financial statements showed cash on hand and in banks rising from P21.23 million at the end of 2022 to P28.97 million in 2023, then falling to P15.53 million in 2024 and P13.80 million in 2025. 

Marquez said Duterte signed the attached statement of management’s responsibility as proprietor, meaning she “acknowledges that she is responsible for all the information and representations contained in the annual income tax return” for 2025.

2. Law practice and Davao City salary

Marquez said Duterte is registered with the BIR as a professional in “legal activities.” The financial statements do not state the source of the couple’s “other income,” P1.58 million in 2024 and P1.1 million in 2025, but she said the BIR treats it as income from law practice. 

A BIR Form 2316 attached to Duterte’s 2023 return showed she received compensation from the Davao City government that year, her second as vice president. 

In showing this, the prosecution cited the constitutional ban on the vice president holding other offices or practicing other professions.

Matib also presented returns from Duterte’s years as Davao City mayor showing non-compensation income of up to P4.65 million a year, despite a Local Government Code ban on mayors practicing their profession. He said this showed “a habit of violating laws which prohibit her from practicing her profession.”  

Questioned by Escudero, Marquez confirmed the BIR had issued a letter of authority to audit either Duterte or her husband but declined to give details. “Confidential po ito so I cannot disclose it in this court,” she said.

3. No tax record of Cale88 share transfer

Marquez said the BIR has no record of any transfer of Carpio’s shares in Cale 88 Foods Corp., a Davao banana chips exporter, or of taxes paid on one. No electronic Certificate Authorizing Registration (eCAR), required before a sale of unlisted shares can be recorded in a company’s books, has been issued or applied for.

The prosecution argued that Carpio therefore remains the owner and that the sale of his shares to Pikimong Pikimong Inc. was “fake,” a description Escudero struck at the defense’s request. 

Matib noted the transfer nonetheless appeared in the company’s General Information Sheet with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Marquez told Escudero the sale remained valid between the parties but “should not have been recorded in the stock and transfer books.”

On cross-examination, Ferrer established that staff of Revenue District Office 113A in Davao City, not the BIR central office, encoded the figures relating to the Dutertes' tax filings, and that Marquez’s office “only reviewed the tax summaries.” 

Cross-examination continues on Friday, with Escudero aiming to conclude the testimony of Marquez before lunch so the court can proceed to Cabrera, whose testimony he described as the “meat” of Article II.