Court junks VP husband’s bid vs tax record subpoena
The Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has dismissed the petition filed by lawyer Manases Carpio, husband of Vice President Sara Duterte, that sought to prevent the House of Representatives from obtaining the couple’s income tax records in connection with the impeachment complaints against her.
Judge Madonna Echiverri of the Quezon City RTC Branch 81 said the court could not rule on Carpio’s petition since it would infringe on the chamber’s impeachment powers granted by the Constitution.
“On the matter of the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction, it has been settled that the injunction is directed only to the party litigants, without in any manner interfering with the court,” the RTC said in a five-page ruling issued on May 6.
The petition sought to stop individual respondents who were acting in their official capacity as a House body where the impeachment complaints had been filed against Duterte, it noted.
Coequal branch
According to the court, the power of judicial review over a constitutional organ like the House committee on justice properly belongs to the Supreme Court.
“The respondents are acting in the official capacity as part of the (House committee), a coequal branch of the government; hence, the case at bench should have been filed with the Supreme Court,” it said.
Carpio’s petition named Speaker Faustino Dy III, justice committee chair and Rep. Gerville Luistro of Batangas, and Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Charlito Mendoza as respondents.
The court maintained that the House holds the “exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment” under the 1987 Constitution.
Consequently, a writ of prohibition cannot be issued against a validly constituted body exercising its legal mandate, it said.
The committee’s issuance of subpoenas for Carpio and Duterte’s income tax returns was done in the “valid exercise of said inherent powers,” it added.
YouTube, news reports
The court also took note of Carpio’s citation of YouTube videos and news articles as part of his petition.
YouTube links and newspaper reports “cannot be [the] subject of a mandatory judicial notice,” it said.
Newspaper articles, on the other hand. “amount to ‘hearsay evidence, twice removed’ and are therefore not only inadmissible but without probative value at all whether objected to or not, unless offered for a purpose other than proving the truth of the matter asserted.”
The four articles of impeachment adopted by the House committee are set for plenary vote on May 11.
‘215’ votes secured
On Thursday, Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon said about 215 lawmakers had signaled their support for Duterte’s impeachment, matching the vote count when she was first impeached by the House in February 2025.
“From consultations, we are now at around 215 House members supporting the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte,” Ridon told reporters in a Viber message.
A minimum of 106 votes is needed—or a third of the chamber—to elevate the articles to the Senate for trial. —WITH A REPORT FROM KENNETH BASILIO
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