Palace to VP Sara: Why hide SALN, the 'core' answer to wealth question?
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has questioned Vice President Sara Duterte's attempt to keep her SALN out of the evidence to be shown at the impeachment trial, saying such an important record should be the "core" of her defense against allegations of unexplained wealth.
Duterte is facing four articles of impeachment, including a charge that she amassed wealth far beyond what her government salary could explain and failed to declare all her assets, the article that her SALNs speak directly to.
The Palace has repeatedly said it will not interfere in the Senate impeachment proceedings or comment on the specifics of Duterte's case. But at a briefing on Tuesday, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said the SALNs the defense wants removed were the heart of the unexplained-wealth charge, and that pulling them out would weaken any claim that Duterte had nothing to hide.
"The Palace, the administration will not interfere in the work of the Senate. But as far as we know, this is the core, this is the meat of the case, of the complaint against her regarding the alleged unexplained wealth," Castro said in mixed English and Filipino.
"So, if she is removing this, how can she show the people that she is upright and clean and has no unexplained wealth?" she added.
How the request came about
Duterte's lawyers made the move in their pre-trial brief, filed with the Senate impeachment court on June 15.
In it, they argued that several documents taken up during the House justice committee clarificatory hearings in April were never part of the two original impeachment complaints against her, and so should not be treated as evidence at the trial.
Among the records they want set aside are her SALNs.
The defense also said the committee did not give them copies of some of those documents before the hearings, which it said was a denial of due process.
READ: A 'rehash,' 'evasion' of trial: House prosecutors slam VP Sara's impeachment answer
The sheer volume of documents has bogged down the pre-trial conference attended by both sides. The conference opened on June 18 and entered its fourth day on Wednesday, with the marking of evidence still unfinished.
Marking is the act of labelling each document so it can be referred to once the trial begins. Most of the backlog sits with the confidential-funds charge, which carries thousands of exhibits.
House lead prosecutor Rep. Jinky Luistro (Batangas, 2nd District) said the records tied to that article were "voluminous" — about 1,900 documents linked to Department of Education payments and more than 2,000 for the Office of the Vice President.
Part of the delay, Luistro said, is that the defense has chosen to mark its own copies of documents separately, even where the papers are identical to the prosecution's, which means each set has to be compared before it can be labelled.
The trial is set to open July 6.
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