Vice President Sara Duterte’s declared net worth for 2025 exceeds the combined after-tax income that she and her husband, Manases Carpio, earned over the last 18 years.
From 2007, when she was vice mayor of Davao City, to 2025, as the second-highest official of the land, Duterte and her husband earned a combined after-tax income of ₱85.3 million, according to an official of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) testifying before the Senate impeachment court on Day 36 of her trial.
Duterte and Carpio declared a net worth of ₱98.5 million in her latest statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) in 2025, private prosecutor Erwin Matib said.
“So here, there is a gap, there is a difference,” Matib told the impeachment court on Thursday, Oct. 8, during a hearing that resumed the prosecution’s claim that the Vice President had amassed unexplained wealth.
Defense lawyer Kristine Ferrer immediately objected to Matib’s remark, saying the prosecutor should not raise the SALNs because these were not testified on, and that the prosecution’s witness, BIR chief of staff Anne Loraine Garcia Marquez, has “no personal knowledge” of Duterte’s SALNs.
Presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero pointed out that the SALNs had already been testified on in the impeachment trial, but not by the witness, who, he agreed, is “not competent” to do so. He told the prosecution to “avoid testifying for the witness.”
Tax records
After three days of scrutinizing the Vice President’s bank records, prosecutors now focused on her tax records.
The hearing started late in the afternoon because Matib had initially called in sick, and House prosecutors wanted to present another witness instead, to which the defense team expressed vehement opposition.
With the senator-judges split on whether to suspend the hearing or proceed, Escudero said the court would see if Matib could be well enough to attend after lunch. He did arrive and apologized to the court for the delay.
But before the BIR’s Marquez took the witness stand, the defense through Ferrer asked that Duterte’s income tax returns (ITRs) not be flashed on screen. She said tax returns are “sensitive personal information and privileged, and their publication is prohibited” under the Data Privacy Act.
“While the Office of the President authorized the tax returns before the court, such authorization does not include the inspection and viewing of the tax returns by the public,” Ferrer said of the July 29, 2026, letter of Executive Secretary Ralph Recto.
At one point, Ferrer also insisted that tax returns are “private records,” but Escudero countered that these are “public records.”
An exasperated Matib said many taxpayers would want to know how much Duterte earned, and “we owe it to the public to show as to the income of the Vice President, not only the assets.”
“Let us not suppress the evidence,” he said.
Escudero ultimately said the prosecution can ask questions on Duterte’s tax returns but not flash these on screen.
Besides the Duterte-Carpio couple’s ₱85.3 million combined after-tax income, they had undeclared cash and other assets as shown by the BIR’s audited financial statements, Matib said.
He said their cash balances included ₱21 million in 2022; ₱28 million in 2023; ₱15 million in 2024; and ₱13 million in 2025.
Earlier, the Office of the Ombudsman records officer testified that Duterte declared cash on hand and in bank only when she was vice mayor of Davao City from 2007 to 2009, and during her first term as mayor from 2010 to 2012, and in her second term from 2016 to 2018.
The witness said Duterte did not make any cash declaration for 2019 and 2020. She also did not declare “cash on hand and in bank” in her SALNs from 2021 to 2025.
Tax audit
But one big revelation at Thursday’s hearing was that the BIR was already undertaking a tax audit on Duterte’s income.
Marquez acknowledged that the BIR had issued an “e-Letter of Authority” (eLOA) on the Vice President, which means a tax audit is being conducted.
On Escudero’s questioning, Marquez said the Tax Code allows the BIR to determine whether an income is legal or illegal.
“All income derived from whatever source, meaning both lawful and unlawful, is taxable,” she said.
She also said that during a tax audit, revenue officers examine the income earner’s books and documents, and added that the BIR has to issue an eLOA “to conduct an audit to determine whether taxes are paid.”
“In this case, did you issue a letter of authority against the Vice President or her spouse?” Escudero said.
“Yes,” Marquez said, prompting the presiding officer to ask her when the BIR issued the eLOA.
She replied: “We can only state that an eLOA has been issued but not … the details.”
Cale88 Foods
Meanwhile, Matib insisted that Carpio continues to own Cale88 Foods Corporation based on BIR records.
Early this week, the Anti-Money Laundering Council said the banana chips company received P319.32 million in inward remittances from China and Hong Kong. Duterte had listed the company among her business interests in her SALNs for the period 2022-2025. Her husband served as incorporator, director, and shareholder of the company, but his name was not listed as a shareholder by 2025.
Under Matib’s questioning, Marquez said the BIR database showed “no records arising from or any connection of transfer, sale, disposition, or other conveyance of shares of stock for Cale88.”
“So the BIR has no record at all of the sale of shares of stock of Carpio? So this means he is still the owner of Cale88 Foods Corp., and the sale of shares of Pikimong, Pikimong is fake?” Matib said, prompting Ferrer to object and ask the court to strike his remarks on fake shares.
Escudero instructed that the cited remarks be removed from the record.
Practicing law
Matib also presented BIR records showing that Duterte had practiced as a lawyer and received compensation for it even as Vice President, in violation of the Constitution.
Marquez said Duterte signed a BIR 2316 form that showed “she received a compensation income from the City Government of Davao in 2023.”
“As a lawyer, can the Vice President practice her profession and accept professional fees and other income aside from her salary as Vice President?” Matib asked.
But before Marquez could answer, Ferrer objected and raised the “competence” of the witness.
Escudero sustained Ferrer’s objection. Matib then cited Article 7, Section 13 of the 1987 Constitution — which Marquez read for the court — barring the president, vice president, members of the Cabinet, and their deputies and assistants from holding any other office or employment, or engaging in business, during their tenure.
Matib then presented Duterte’s 2021 annual tax returns, which showed she received P2.36 million in compensation income and ₱4.650 million under “sales/ revenues/receipts/fees.” He said that the P4.650 million did not indicate the source of this income but that, based on Duterte’s certificate of registration, “she practiced her legal profession.”
Matib said that under Section 90-A of the Local Government Code, “all governors, municipal and city mayors are prohibited from practicing their profession or engaging in any occupation other than the exercise of their function as local chief executives.”
He then asked if Duterte was prohibited from practicing her profession when she was Davao City mayor, a position she held from 2016 to 2022.
“Based on the law flashed on screen, it appears that it’s prohibited,” Marquez said. CS
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