MANILA, Philippines — The Senate impeachment court cannot keep in its custody the sealed green box containing the tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio and has decided to return it to the House of Representatives prosecution panel, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.
Speaking over radio dzMM, Lacson said that in an all-senators’ caucus on Friday, it was agreed that the box from the Bureau of Internal Revenue should be returned to House prosecutors as “it is not the impeachment court or any court’s role to unseal it.”
“One of the things we agreed upon in Friday’s senators’ caucus was to return the box because keeping it in our custody will violate the law,” Lacson said.
It was Sen. Francis Escudero who told them that the impeachment court has no authority to keep the box, which was not entered as evidence during the pre-trial conference due to objection from the defense panel.
“Sen. Francis Escudero is right in saying the impeachment court has no business safekeeping the evidence because it is a court – unless it is presented and admitted as evidence before the court by the prosecution or defense,” Lacson said.
Lacson said Sec. 71 of the National Internal Revenue Code stipulates that unsealing the box would need written authority from the President upon the recommendation of the BIR and Department of Finance, or a written waiver from the respondent.
“The prosecution should not pass the burden of unsealing the box to the impeachment court. The prosecution may ask permission from the Office of the President to unseal the box. But it should not pass the burden to us because we will not do it,” he said.
The contents of the box were not presented during the House justice committee hearing on Duterte’s impeachment due to confidentiality provisions in the tax code.
The “BIR registration documents” in the box are included as “reserve evidence” for Article II on Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said in the first place, the box should not have been allowed to be kept at the Senate for safekeeping.
The prosecution, he said, may again offer the box as evidence and have it marked as one during the trial.
“So, it’s not the business or responsibility of the impeachment court to safeguard that evidence. That’s what we talked about. And again, I don’t want to preempt what decision will eventually come out. But we really discussed it, and that’s my personal position,” he said.
Gatchalian said he expects all senator judges to participate in the entire trial, amid concerns that some senator-judges allied with the Vice President might boycott the proceedings from day one.
“This is one of the biggest responsibilities of the Senate. And in the opening, I’m sure many will come to perform this responsibility,” he said.
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