A court petition seeking to block the release of Vice President Sara Duterte’s tax records was rendered moot after the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) turned over the documents to the House Committee on Justice.
Panel chair Rep. Gerville Reyes-Luistro confirmed Monday that the tax files of the vice president and her husband, Manases Carpio, are already in the committee’s possession, effectively preempting Carpio’s attempt to secure a temporary restraining order.
“Definitely, from my perspective, to [attempt to] stop the BIR from submitting the ITR to the Justice Committee is already moot and academic because it is already submitted,” Luistro said in a radio interview, noting that the income tax returns were successfully obtained.
Carpio had asked a Quezon City Regional Trial Court on 10 April to stop the BIR from complying with a congressional subpoena for their tax records covering 2007 to 2025. He argued that the committee lacked jurisdiction over him as a private citizen and that tax returns “are confidential information” protected from unauthorized disclosure.
Luistro, however, justified the inclusion of Carpio’s financial records by citing civil law, noting that in the absence of a prenuptial agreement, a married couple’s properties and income are considered shared.
Securing the tax records forms part of a broader, document-driven strategy by the House panel ahead of its second impeachment hearing on Wednesday, 22 April.
To navigate the country’s strict bank secrecy laws, the panel deliberately avoided summoning banking executives.
Instead, lawmakers subpoenaed the Anti-Money Laundering Council to provide intelligence reports on covered and suspicious transactions involving the couple from 2006 to 2025.
At the hearing, the committee is expected to cross-check the tax and AMLC data with Duterte’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), which the Office of the Ombudsman has also been directed to submit.