The Registers of Deeds of Davao City and Samal in Davao province said they found no matches for two properties in the name of Manases Carpio, Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth for the years following their acquisition.
The Registers of Deeds, officials under the Land Registration Authority, were presented as witnesses in relation to Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth.
Duterte files her SALN jointly with her husband.
The first property tackled in the testimony was a P6 million, 379-square-meter piece of land in Matina Crossing in Davao City that Carpio acquired in July 2024 for P6 million, as stated by Atty. Kathy Florence Baldonado, Register of Deeds of Davao City.
The second was a P3.45 million property in Samal under Carpio’s name, as stated by Atty. Marco Pineda, Acting Register of Deeds of Samal.
Presiding Officer Sen. Francis Escudero asked Baldonado if she found an entry in Duterte’s SALN that matched the details of the property.
She said there was no property in the SALN that matched the acquisition cost, address, or mode of acquisition of the Matina Crossing property.
Escudero noted, though, that the SALN form does not require the actual area to be stated.
Defense counsel Lindon Bacquel manifested that Barangay 74A is known as Matina Crossing and asked the court to take judicial notice of this.
Bacquel also said the SALN listed a property in Barangay 74A worth P10 million.
As for the Samal property, Pineda said there was no entry in Duterte’s SALN that perfectly matched the amount, location, and year acquired of the property in the Deed of Absolute Sale.
Bacquel said there is a tax declaration matching the assessed value of a property in the SALN, and asked Pineda if they matched, to which the latter agreed.
Bacquel went on to ask if the property was declared in the SALN, but House prosecutor Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores objected and said that while the tax declaration matched, it does not mean the property was declared.
Escudero said it does not mean it was the same property.