Carpio’s land purchases in Davao not reflected in VP’s SALN – witnesses

MANILA, Philippines – Two property registrars testified on Thursday that two parcels of land in the Davao Region purchased by Vice President Sara Duterte’s spouse, Atty. Manases Carpio, were not reflected in the vice president’s statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN).

Davao City Register of Deeds IV Kathy Florence Baldonado and Samal Deputy Register of Deeds III Marco Pineda took the witness stand to present documents in relation to Carpio’s properties in the region.

Matina land

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Baldonado testified that based on the transfer certificate of title, Carpio supposedly purchased a 379-square-meter parcel of land located in Juna Subd., Matina Crossing, Talomo, Davao City, Davao del Sur.

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The deed of sale states that the land was sold to Carpio on July 2, 2024 for P6 million pesos.

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“Base po sa record na hawak ko, wala po sa 2025 (SALN)– wala pong nagmatch sa presyo at sa lugar at ang mode of acquisition ang nakalagay po sa 2025 ay construction at dito po sa aming dokumento ay deed of sale,” Baldonado told the court. 

(Based on the record I have, there is nothing in 2025 (SALN) – there is no match in the price and the location and the mode of acquisition is stated in 2025 as construction and here in our document it is deed of sale.)

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Presiding officer Francis Escudero also declared before the court that after inspecting the SALN of Duterte, “[he did] not find this particular property as one of the real properties declared because we checked it against all of the declarations of the vice president.”

Defense lawyer Lindon Bacquel made a manifestation, saying it would be “erroneous” for the impeachment court to not identify the same property in Duterte’s SALN.

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“The court must take mandatory judicial notice of the geographical divisions in the Philippines that Matina Crossing is also known as Brgy 74A, which is declared in the SALN,” Bacquel added.

Later, Escudero clarified that the property was not found because the areas in the SALN are “too generic” to identify.

But he continued: “There is a sale mentioned here as identified earlier.. of a parcel of land in 76A Davao City but the amount of acquisition is P10 million, and a sale of property in Dumoy Davao City but the sale is P2 million.”

On August 24, 2024, a real estate mortgage was executed by Carpio on the P6 million property “in favor of the Philippine Savings Bank” for P8 million.READ: Luistro: Trillanes will no longer be presented as witness

Samal Land

The same observation was made for another parcel of land measuring 751 square meters that Carpio supposedly purchased in Matanos, Island Garden City of Samal, Province of Davao del Norte.

According to Pineda, the records of the registry show that Carpio acquired the land on March 15, 2018 for P3,453,849.

Upon referencing the vice president’s SALN once again, Pineda said: “Nothing in this SALN perfectly matches the DOAS (Deed of Absolute Sale.)

Escudero referenced the 2019 SALN pointing out that Duterte declared two land purchases in Brgy. Aundanao, Igacos – one sold at P2 million in total and another at P1 million.

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But Pineda said that both declarations, though coming close to the total amount paid for by Carpio, “does not match the deed of sale… in so far as this title is concerned there is only one parcel (of land) not two.” /gsg