Escudero allows ‘flashing’ of VP Sara tax record summaries, tables

Impeachment court presiding officer Francis “Chiz” Escudero allowed the presentation of summaries and tables created by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on the subpoenaed tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Escudero’s decision came after Duterte's lawyer Atty. Kristine Ferrer raised her objections to the “flashing” of information related to their client’s income taxes that directly violated her constitutional right to privacy.

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

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

The presentation that the lawyer was referring to were summaries and tables that BIR Commissioner Chief of Staff Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez prepared in accordance with the subpoenas the agency received from the panel of prosecutors.

Escudero, however, sought to identify whether the said materials were part of the authorization that was provided by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that was required for the presentation of the tax records.

Garcia-Marquez answered in the negative, but clarified that all the information that was contained in the summaries were the same information contained in the documents submitted before the court.

Earlier in the dispute, private prosecutor Atty. Erwin Matib maintained that the “story” on the tax records of the Vice President had to be finally concluded through the presentation of the same before the court.

“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,” Matib said in Filipino.

The private prosecutor maintained that their presentation of evidence in previous days related to the bank accounts of Duterte, her assets, net worth led up to the tax records, where both will be compared to understand whether the Vice President 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 stated.

Ruling on the dispute, Escudero recalled the developments that took place in the impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona wherein the then BIR commissioner testified.

The senator noted that, at that point, there were no screens where the documents could be flashed for the public’s indulgence but that media personnel were able to capture through photographs the tax records being discussed.

Escudero mentioned that there were no objections raised then from the court or any party, despite the financial document being posted on television screens.

In view of the precedent set in the Corona trial and the confirmation from Garcia-Marquez that the information was “culled from the subpoenaed documents,” the presiding officer allowed the presentation of the materials.

He reminded Matib to refrain from flashing any of the source documents which would contain information from the documents originally submitted by the BIR.

“So, insofar as the tables and summaries are concerned the court will allow it without showing again the source documents that were subject matter of the subpoena,” Escudero explained.

Amid the ruling, Ferrer expressed their intent to register their continuing objection to the flashing of the materials, reiterating their position that the same violated the rights to privacy of the Vice President.

Garcia-Marquez served as one of the numerous witnesses that the House prosecution panel has presented with regards to Article II of the impeachment.