Assessor: Sara declared Carpio property

A Davao City assessor testified before the Senate impeachment court on Monday that a property registered under the name of Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, corresponded to real estate she declared in her statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

Engineer Jaime Adalin, the city assessor, identified Carpio as the registered owner of a residential lot and a building in Matina Crossing, Davao City, which he said corresponded to entries in Duterte’s 2024 SALN.

The tax declaration for the lot listed an assessed value of P82,046 and a market value of P2,051,150. A separate declaration for the building placed its assessed value at P5.24 million and market value at P6.99 million.

When shown Duterte’s 2024 SALN, Adalin identified an entry for a residential lot in Barangay 74-A with the same assessed value of P82,046 but a fair market value of P2,511,150. He also identified a commercial building entry corresponding to the structure covered by the tax declaration he presented.

Adalin clarified that Matina Crossing and Barangay 74-A referred to the same location.

Asked about the difference in the lot’s market value, he explained that the tax declaration reflecting P2.05 million had been canceled after the property was sold and transferred to Carpio.

He said assessed values were determined using assessment levels prescribed by local ordinances, while market values were based on the schedule of market values approved by the city government.

First defense witness

Adalin was presented by Duterte’s lawyers as their first defense witness to counter the earlier testimony of Davao City Register of Deeds Kathy Florence Baldonado, who said Carpio acquired a 379-square-meter property in Matina for P6 million in July 2024.

Baldonado testified that she could not find a corresponding entry in Duterte’s 2025 SALN based on the property’s purchase price, location, and mode of acquisition. The title also carried an annotation showing that Carpio and Duterte mortgaged the property for P8 million in August 2024.

Prosecution’s claim disputed

Duterte’s spokesperson Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. said Adalin’s testimony weakened the prosecution’s claim that the property registered in Carpio’s name was missing from the Vice President’s asset disclosures.

He argued that the testimony supported the possibility that the property in Matina Crossing was the same one declared in Duterte’s SALN.

“What matters here is whether the property was declared or not. And it appears clear that it was declared,” Panelo told reporters at the Senate.

He also pointed to the matching assessed values in the tax declaration and SALN as an indication that the records referred to the same property.

“The transaction documents presented show matching assessed values and market values. It would be difficult to argue that they refer to different properties,” he said.

Panelo maintained that the prosecution had the burden of proving that the property was not declared, rather than requiring Duterte to establish that it was.

“The prosecution has not presented any other property. We are not dealing with possibilities here. The burden of proof rests with them,” he said.

He also defended Adalin after prosecutors questioned the assessor’s recollection of an official trip to China while challenging his credibility as a witness.

“What does a government official’s trip to China have to do with his credibility?” Panelo asked, arguing that the trip had no bearing on whether the property in question had been declared.

He cautioned against politicizing the issue, saying the government should remain consistent in its position favoring a diplomatic engagement with Beijing.