An official from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said companies linked to Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, Atty. Manases Carpio, had no recorded declaration of dividends and, in some cases, failed to submit audited financial statements (AFS).

Atty. Gerardo Del Rosario, director of the SEC's Company Registration and Monitoring Department (CRMD), authenticated reports received from companies in which either Duterte or Carpio was listed as a shareholder.

In the 18 companies identified by the prosecution in its offer of testimony for Del Rosario, the witness confirmed that there was no formal declaration concerning dividends from the cited business interests.

Discussing the report summary on Metro City Chow Foods Corporation, Del Rosario was asked to clarify the term "dividends," given that his report indicated that there were "no dividends declared."

"The dividends is a part of the profit of a corporation that comes from its retained earnings and this retained earnings are also tagged as unrestricted retained earnings…that may be declared and paid as dividends to a shareholder," Del Rosario answered.

He further explained that a dividend was a "profit that was given to shareholders" in relation to their shares in a particular company. In Duterte's case, her reported share in Metro City Chow Foods Corporation was 20 percent.

After the explanation, presiding officer Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero sought to clarify whether such earnings would only be handed over to a shareholder once they had been formally declared.

Escudero also asked whether the amount would remain part of the company's funds and whether taxes would be paid after the formal declaration.

Del Rosario answered all of the senator's queries in the affirmative.

Aside from the lack of dividend declarations, the SEC official noted that some companies, including Carpio Lawyers, Amianan Shores, Davao Bounty Times Food Corporation, and 3Kids Trucking Services Inc., did not submit audited financial statements.

Escudero, with the witness confirming, noted that the lack of financial statements meant there was no basis to determine whether dividends had in fact been received by the respondent and her husband.

Dispute over prosecution materials

With the prosecution wrapping up its direct examination, private prosecutor Atty. Erwin Matib presented materials to reinforce its findings that the companies linked to the Duterte-Carpio couple had "no dividends declared."

Defense lawyer Atty. Justin Gular, however, objected to the presentation, arguing that the materials were "misleading, unreliable" and "misrepresentative" of the records authenticated by Del Rosario.

"It is already clear now that these were inaccurate and misrepresentative, your Honor. We therefore, with the court's kind indulgence, move that the visuals as well as the questions pertaining to those inaccurate statements to be stricken off the record," Gular said.

In response, Matib maintained that the materials were not inaccurate because they were based on documents submitted by the companies themselves.

The private prosecutor further noted that companies were required to indicate line items such as dividends in their general information sheets (GIS), regardless of whether the dividends were in stock, cash, or property.

Escudero ultimately overruled Gular's objection, stressing that Del Rosario had previously testified that there was no declaration of dividends based on both the GIS and the AFS.