Two properties in the Davao Region valued at nearly P10 million and registered in the name of Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, Manases Carpio, were not declared in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs), according to two registers of deeds.
Kathy Baldonado, Davao City register of deeds, and Marco Pineda, acting register of deeds in the Island Garden City of Samal, testified in Duterte’s impeachment hearing on allegations of her unexplained wealth on Thursday, Oct. 1.
They said they did not see any match of the Carpio properties in the items listed in the vice president’s SALN in 2025 and 2019, respectively.
Even impeachment presiding officer Francis Escudero made a similar declaration, at least for the property in Barangay Matina, Davao City. “We checked it against all of the declarations by the vice president,” he said.
“In fact, it’s not found in previous SALNs too, prior to 2025, for the information and guidance of the senator-judges,” Escudero said during the direct examination of Baldonado.
After the hearing, House lead prosecutor and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro told reporters that they were able to establish the allegations in Article II of the articles of impeachment against Duterte, which cover her unexplained wealth and her SALN discrepancies, particularly in her financial disclosures.
Defense review
The impeachment trial was supposed to be a whole-day event, with prosecutors scheduled to present the testimony of lawyer Ronel Buenaventura, executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), after the two land registration officials.
But Escudero granted the defense’s request to postpone the proceedings until Monday, Oct. 5, to give them time to review the AMLC document summaries containing Duterte’s bank transaction records, which were turned over to them on Thursday morning.
Another major development was Luistro’s announcement that prosecutors were dropping former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV as a witness.
Trillanes was supposed to testify about the AMLC documents in his possession – which the government agency later confirmed that these matched its records — involving bank transactions of Duterte, her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and other family members.
In a tweet, Trillanes said he asked Luistro to withdraw his name as a witness so the prosecution “would be relieved from the pressure it is going through.” He will instead hold a press conference on Friday at Club Filipino in San Juan City.
Land documents
On Day 32 of the impeachment trial, House public prosecutor and Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores focused on the two properties registered in Carpio’s name by presenting the Transfer Certificates of Title and their Deeds of Sale produced by Baldonado and Pineda for the impeachment court.
Baldonado said the 379-square-meter property in Matina was purchased on July 2, 2024. It was mortgaged on Aug. 27, 2024, through Philippine Savings Bank.
Defense lawyer Lindon Bacquel objected to Flores’ bid to ask Baldonado about Duterte’s SALN, saying she was not competent to do so.
Interjecting, Escudero asked Baldonado whether Carpio’s P6-million purchase of the Matina property as shown in the TCT matched that in Duterte’s 2025 SALN. “There is no match as to price and location,” she said.
Baldonado also said there was a deed of sale in 2024, but these were priced at P10 million and P2 million, not P6 million.
‘Matina Crossing’
Bacquel took exception to Escudero’s pronouncement that the Matina property was not declared in Duterte’ 2025 SALN, saying another document showed that this property was located in Matina Crossing, Davao City.
“This court must take mandatory judicial notice of the geographical divisions in the Philippines that Matina Crossing is also known as Barangay 74A, which is declared in the SALN,” Bacquel said.
During his cross-examination, Baldonado presented a “more recent” tax declaration on the Matina Crossing property.
Flores objected to the defense’s bid to confront the witness with the tax declaration, saying it was not among the documents produced by Baldonado, and the defense should instead call a witness to authenticate it. But the witness said the tax declaration was not among the records she produced.
Flores told the impeachment court that Matina Crossing is a “general area and comprises several barangays.” The court “will look into it,” Escudero said.
Samal Island property
On Carpio’s second property, Flores asked Pineda about the 751-square-meter property in Samal Island, which was purchased on March 15, 2018, for P3.45 million.
On Escudero’s interjection, Pineda said, “Nothing in [Duterte’s 2019 SALN] perfectly matches” the Samal property.
On Bacquel’s cross-examination, he showed Duterte’s SALN, which declared that a Barangay Matanos property under Carpio’s name was acquired for P2 million, as well as a Barangay San Isidro property in 2013.
But Pineda said he could not say because the deed of sale of the property in question was in 2018.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian asked Pineda about the San Isidro property in Duterte’s SALN against the Matanos property in the TCT. Pineda said that to determine the actual location of the property in question, one should look into the recent tax mapping based on the tax declarations.
When Gatchalian asked whether property prices in Samal Island were soaring, Pineda said it was “public knowledge” that prices there were going up.
The Senate president said this was because he noticed the 2013 property’s acquisition cost was at P4 million, as stated by the defense, but the deed of sale was P3.4 million in 2018.
Pineda said he knew that on the Kembali Coast, property prices were soaring. CS
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