Prosecution: Defense's first witness a 'weakness' amid discrepancies in testimony

The first witness presented by the defense team in Vice President Sara Duterte's impeachment trial turned out to be "a weakness" for them due to a testimony peppered with inconsistencies, the House prosecution team said Monday.

The prosecution team made the observation after Davao City assessor and engineer Jaime Adalin testified that the residential lot with an acquisition cost of 10 million under Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) 146-2024-010775 is the same property declared by the Duterte in her 2024 and 2025 SALN even if the Electronic Certificate Authorizing Registration (eCAR) for the said property showed an acquisition cost of P6 million in 2024, not P10 million.

House prosecutor Joel Chua said that the discrepancy is just one of the many red flags.

“In the eCAR, the acquisition cost is P6 million, but under the SALN, the acquisition cost is P10 million. Secondly, eCAR states that the property is a lot with improvement, but for the SALN, it just states lot. Thirdly, SALN declaration states residential lot, but when the prosecution showed the current photo of property with a commercial building, nung tinatanong siya, biglang hindi niya na masagot kung ito ay commercial,” Chua said in a press conference.

(When shown a photo, suddenly, he could not say whether it was a commercial establishment.)

An eCAR is issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue once the property has been transferred and corresponding dues were paid by the new owner, in this case, as a result of a property sale to the Vice President’s husband, Manases Carpio.

The SALN of the Vice President, on the other hand, is a joint filing with Carpio.

“Lumalabas po yung pinresenta po kanina ng depensa na witness ay lumalabas na isang weakness,” Chua added.

(What emerged here is that the defense witness turned out to be a weakness.)

House lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro of Batangas, for her part, said that Adalin was wrong to use the property’s title in concluding that it was the same property declared by the Vice President as an asset in her 2024 and 2025 SALN because the land title and SALN requires different information.

“Our [prosecution] reference, of course, is the SALN. And the description in the SALN only states the barangay, assessed value, the fair market value, and even the acquisition cost. There is no way [for the witness] to verify because the [land] title provides for different references. The [land] title makes use of the technical description which was never contained in the SALN,” Luistro pointed out.

“How do you compare the description in the SALN with a different mode of description in other documents? What is clear is that the description of the property in the title is entirely different from the description of the property in the SALN,” she added.

Private prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa, Jr., who conducted the cross-examination on Adalin, stressed that the discrepancies in the amounts is a clear stain on his testimony.

“How can you say that they're the same considering these discrepancies? And with respect on the similarity of fair market value and assessed value, it's possible that other properties in the same area may have the same fair market value and assessed value, as noted by Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian,” he said.

Tolosa was referring to Gatchalian questioning Adalin’s conclusion that the P6 million property acquired by the Vice President’s husband in 2024 is the same P10 million declared asset of the Vice President in 2024 and 2025 even if the SALN entries on the said property does not state a title number.

"Wala naman pong nakasulat na title number. Wala rin pong nakasulat na tax declaration number," Gatchalian pointed out.

(There is no title number and tax declaration in the SALN.)

Gatchalian then asked Adalin if it is possible that other properties near the subject property have the same assessed value and fair market value, considering that nearby parcels appeared to have similar shapes based on the maps presented by the defense and the prosecution.

Adalin replied, "Yes, most probably, Your Honor." — BM, GMA News

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