No dividends: Defense argument strengthens prosecution's case --Adiong

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The impeachment defense team’s argument that the law does not mandate the declaration of dividends bolsters the prosecution’s assertion that Vice President Sara Duterte’s increase in net worth cannot be accounted for by the business interests she declared in her SALN, the prosecution panel said.

“That [Corporation Code invoked by the defense] is irrelevant and immaterial. He went through a lot of technical details, processes under the revised corporate law but it does not answer one very basic and simple question: Where did the Vice President get all the money reflected in her SALN?” House prosecution panel spokesperson Zia Adiong of Lanao del Sur said in a press conference.

“And why did the Vice President declare that all these companies who have not consistently [been] declaring dividends can actually justify the increase of her net worth?...It even further strengthened the case of the prosecution na hindi iyon ang source of income niya [that these businesses are not the source of her income],” Adiong added.

Impeachment trial defense counsel Justin Gular on Tuesday defended the absence of declared dividends of 10 businesses linked to Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio, saying the law does not require the declaration of dividends.

Gular invoked Section 42 of the Corporation Code, which states that “the board of directors of a stock corporation may declare dividends out of the unrestricted retained earnings which shall be payable in cash, property, or in stock to all stockholders on the basis of outstanding stock held by them.”

Gular then asked prosecution witness SEC Company Registration and Monitoring Department Director Gerardo del Rosario: “So as a lawyer and as an officer of the SEC, you confirm that just because a corporation has unrestricted retained earnings, it’s not automatically required by law para mag-declare ng dibidendo [to declare dividends]. Tama po ba? [Would that be correct?]”

Del Rosario replied, "Tama po." (That’s correct.)

Later in the day, prosecution witness and Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) Division Chief Rendell Sopeña told the Senate impeachment court that GenCorp. Industries Inc, listed by the Vice President as one of her business interest in her 2024 and 2025 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, won P35 million worth of government contracts when Duterte was Vice President.

Sopeña said that the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) Region 11 awarded 33 contracts to GenCorp.

Davao City government, on the other hand, also awarded 15 contracts to GenCorp.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Region 11, for its part, awarded one contract of GenCorp. — BM, GMA News