Sara Duterte’s ‘undisclosed’ guns to be taken up in trial

INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — A new set of evidence in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment case will include guns that she failed to disclose in her annual statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), a member of the House prosecution team told the Inquirer on Tuesday.

Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon, who leads the team pursuing the article of impeachment relating to Duterte’s unexplained wealth, said House prosecutors uncovered at least 50 firearms allegedly registered to the Vice President and her husband, lawyer Maneses Carpio.

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This came as Duterte’s SALN for 2025, which was released by the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday, showed that her net worth rose 11 percent, from P88.5 million in 2024 to P98.6 million last year.

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Ridon said the firearms were a mix of pistols and rifles and high-caliber weapons, estimating these to be worth millions of pesos. The prosecution panel, he said, is seeking an expert appraisal to determine their actual value.

READ: 2025 SALN: VP Duterte, husband post P98.6M net worth, an 11% hike

“We will get the list from the PNP Firearms Division on each and every firearm that is registered in the name of the vice president and her husband,” Ridon told the Inquirer in a telephone interview. “All of the firearms were never declared in any SALN, in any year.”

“The nondisclosure of firearms ownership is a serious matter, not only because of its value but also because of the type of property left undeclared,” Ridon said in Filipino. “While firearms ownership is not prohibited, it is a highly regulated form of property that should be declared in the SALN.”

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Ridon said Duterte’s failure to disclose the firearms in her SALNs may suggest she holds more hidden assets.

READ: Ridon: New impeachment evidence targets Sara Duterte wealth

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“If you have a stash of… firearms, which you know are a regulated class of properties, it is not far-fetched that there may also be unregulated properties not listed in the vice president’s SALN,” he said.

Discrepancies

Ridon earlier said that Duterte’s SALN from 2007 to 2024 showed discrepancies, saying that the cumulative earnings of Duterte between those years as a local official in Davao City and as Vice President should only be around P30 million to P40 million.

Duterte’s 2024 SALN, however, showed that she had a net worth of P88.5 million, which Ridon noted had a P50-million “gap.”

In response, Duterte’s defense team, in the executive summary of her answer to the articles of impeachment, said it failed to show ill-gotten or hidden wealth.

“On the SALN of the Vice President, under the law, it must be shown that her assets were illegally acquired and/or that she willfully concealed her assets,” their answer said.

Her lawyers said the charges were based on “assumptions, conjectures, and speculative inferences drawn from claimed and alleged financial records, banking information, and materials” falling outside her impeachable term.

Still no cash declared

Duterte’s latest filing still did not include her liquid cash holdings. She, however, included these assets in her statement for 2007, the year she was elected to public office for the first time as vice mayor of Davao City.

After her reelection in 2019, she stopped declaring petty cash and bank deposits in her subsequent SALNs up to 2024. By then, she had been elected Davao City mayor and later Vice President.

Earlier, Michael Poa, Duterte’s legal counsel, said the Vice President’s cash in bank was lumped in “others” under personal properties in her SALN from 2019 to 2024. Poa made this clarification after the House committee on justice received Duterte’s SALNs that showed she declared no cash on hand or in bank.

For Duterte’s 2025 SALN, there is still no separate category for cash in bank under the personal properties entry.

A portion of Duterte’s net worth filed under “others” for 2025 more than doubled to P16.2 million from P5.8 million in 2024.

Duterte and her husband declared P81.3-million worth of real properties and P41.4 million in personal properties, including motor vehicles, for a total of P122.7 million.

They declared combined liabilities of P24.1 million. Of this total, Duterte declared a P6-million loan with Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) and P5.18 million from “various creditors.” Carpio also declared a P6.95-million loan from “various creditors” and another P6 million from a “bank.”

Before she stopped her cash declarations, Duterte’s SALN showed that she had P2 million in petty cash and bank deposits from 2007 to 2008. The amount rose to P2.8 million in 2009, P3.66 million in 2010, P3.93 million in 2011, then P4.32 million in 2012.

Duterte did not hold any public office from 2013 to 2015. In 2016, as Davao mayor, she declared P3.75 million in cash and bank deposits. The figure reached P6.36 million in 2017, and then P3.79 million in 2018.

Defense argument

Duterte’s defense team, in the executive summary of her answer to the Articles of Impeachment, said it failed to show ill-gotten or hidden wealth.

“On the SALN of the Vice President, under the law, it must be shown that her assets were illegally acquired and/or that she willfully concealed her assets,” their answer said.

Her lawyers said the charges were based on “assumptions, conjectures, and speculative inferences drawn from claimed and alleged financial records, banking information, and materials” falling outside her impeachable term.

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Ridon said the prosecution has until Thursday to decide whether to include Duterte’s 2025 SALN, but stressed they already have enough evidence of the Vice President skirting transparency rules in her net worth filings. WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH