Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband Manases “Mans” Carpio owned at least 50 firearms that were not declared through their Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) from 2007 to 2025, a member of the House prosecution said.
Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon said that the guns were uncovered through the list provided by the Philippine National Police (PNP) Firearms and Explosives Office. He said that the information was included in their pre-trial brief.
Among the weapons that were supposedly owned by Duterte and Carpio were rifles, pistols, and revolvers.
Ridon said that they were still in the process of identifying how much the total cost of the weapons were but affirmed that the list of dealers where the couple purchased the firearms was included through the PNP’s document.
The lawmaker noted that the issue was not solely that Duterte and Carpio owned guns, the problem lied in the non-disclosure of the same through the SALN.
“The issue there was that they did not list the possession of guns in their SALN, that’s property, why was it not indicated?” he said in Filipino.
“They can’t argue that it was lumped into the ‘others’...if it was 51 firearms, the amount indicated in the ‘others’ of the Vice President was small. And supposedly, if it was lumped into the cash on hand, cash in bank it would still exceed the ‘others’ line-item,” he added.
Ridon further stated that the evidence that was uncovered would further support their case that Duterte did not properly declare her total net worth and asset list.
On Monday, 15 June, both the prosecution and defense submitted their pre-trial briefs to the Senate impeachment court in line with the schedule provided in the order of Acting Senate President Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian.
Common Witnesses
Though opting to defer the disclosure of the Duterte camp’s witnesses to them, Ridon noted that he did observe that there were some common individuals that were included in both lists.
“There were many witnesses there that were common witnesses that they stated, but then again, if they get called up I think our common witness won’t actually be stating anything new,” he said.
The lawmaker also confirmed that some of the witnesses he was referring to were individuals who were called during the proceedings of the House Committee on Justice into the impeachment complaints against the Vice President.
