The House prosecution panel on Thursday, June 25, questioned the opposition of Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team to marking the sealed box containing tax records from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) during pre-trial proceedings related to the impeachment case.
Lead prosecutor and Batangas Representative Gerville “Jinky” Luistro said the box, which reportedly contains the tax records of Vice President Duterte and her husband, Mans Carpio, remained sealed and unopened during the pre-trial conference.
According to Luistro, the prosecution initially sought to have the sealed box opened at the appropriate stage of the proceedings. However, after the defense objected, prosecutors limited their request to merely marking the sealed box as evidence. She said the defense also opposed that move.
“As a matter of fact, this is the right time, correct time for the marking. So that is why, when we heard their objection to the opening of the sealed box, we just contained ourselves with the marking of the sealed box, which they opposed as well,” Luistro said during a press conference.
The lawmaker expressed confusion over the objection, emphasizing that the box would remain unopened and that only the sealed container itself would be marked for identification purposes.
“Ako yung nagtataka kung ano kayang nakakatakot dun sa pagmamarka ng sealed box. E selyado nga,” she said.
Luistro explained that the prosecution’s intention was simply to preserve the box as a marked piece of evidence while allowing the impeachment court to later decide whether its contents should be opened and examined.
“Ang pinamamarkahan ng prosecution, because they do not want to open the box, ang pinamamarkahan na lang is yung sealed box. So that we will just be submitting to the impeachment court the issue of whether to open or not the BIR box,” she added.
Despite the adjustment, Luistro said the defense maintained its objection to both the opening of the box and the marking of the sealed package.
“But sadly, they opposed the opening of the BIR box. They opposed as well the marking of the sealed BIR box,” she said.
The issue emerged during the pre-trial phase of the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Duterte. Defense lawyer and spokesperson Michael Poa earlier said their camp would formally respond to the prosecution’s manifestation regarding the BIR box on Friday, June 26.
The contents of the sealed BIR box have not been publicly disclosed, and any decision regarding its opening remains subject to the ruling of the impeachment court.
