Chiz allows public view of BIR summaries, data

Impeachment court Presiding Officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero allowed the presentation of summaries and tables prepared by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) from the subpoenaed tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Escudero’s ruling came after Duterte’s lawyer, Kristine Ferrer, objected to the “flashing” of information on her client’s income taxes, saying it violated Duterte’s constitutional right to privacy.

“We are not preventing the prosecution from presenting these tax returns as evidence; what we are asking the court is the prohibition or restraint in flashing these tax returns so that the public may view them,” Ferrer said.

“There’s no restraint on the presentation of these returns as evidence before this court,” she added.

The materials were summaries and tables prepared by BIR Commissioner chief of staff Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez based on documents covered by subpoenas issued to the agency by the House prosecution panel.

Escudero asked whether the materials were covered by the authorization from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. required for the presentation of the tax records.

Garcia-Marquez answered “no,” but clarified that the information in the summaries was the same as that contained in the documents submitted to the court.

‘Ill-gotten’

Private prosecutor Erwin Matib argued that the tax records should be presented to complete the prosecution’s evidence on Duterte’s finances.

“These documents have long been contained in the BIR box, let us not stop the evidence, your Honor, there are many taxpayers watching that are waiting to know the actual income of the Vice President,” he said.

Matib said the tax records would be compared with Duterte’s bank accounts, assets and net worth to determine whether she had unexplained wealth.

“If there is unexplained wealth, what this means is that if it is left unexplained, this is ill-gotten wealth, your Honor. So we owe it to the public to show as well the income of the Vice President before this court,” he said.