Witness: VP Sara's 2013 exit SALN not found in Ombudsman records

Vice President Sara Duterte's exit Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for 2013, the year her first term as Davao City Mayor ended, was not found in the Ombudsman's records, an official of the Office of the Ombudsman said Tuesday.

Ombudsman Records Division officer-in-charge Karen Batu made the testimony during Day 25 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte during the questioning of Senator judge Sherwin Gatchalian on whether the Vice President’s SALN filings are complete.

The Ombudsman is the official repository of the government officials' SALNs.

“Nakita lang po namin is for the 2013, wala po siyang exit SALN. Pero as to the entry SALN po [in her years of government service], kumpleto po,” Batu said.

(We just saw that in 2013, she did not have an exit SALN in our records. But as for entry SALNs, they are all complete.)

When Gatchalian asked Batu if the Vice President needed to file an exit SALN in 2013 since her term as Davao City’s Vice Mayor ended on June 30, 2013, Batu answered in the affirmative.

Duterte was not a public official from 2013 to 2016, but she was again elected Davao City mayor in 2016 and 2019 before being elected Vice President in the 2022 elections.

The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees states that “All public officials and employees, except those who serve in an honorary capacity, laborers and casual or temporary workers, shall file under oath their SALN and a Disclosure of Business Interests and Financial Connections and those of their spouses and unmarried children under 18 years of age living in their households.”

Likewise, the same provision states that the SALN entries should include the following: (a) real property, its improvements, acquisition costs, assessed value and current fair market value; (b) personal property and acquisition cost; (c) all other assets such as investments, cash on hand or in banks, stocks, bonds, and the like; (d) liabilities, and; (e) all business interests and financial connections.

Batu served as a witness for Article 2 of the impeachment case which accuses the Vice President of of accumulating unexplained wealth through the following actions:

• failure to fully and truthfully disclose all her and her spouse's assets, liabilities, and net worth in her statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) including in her SALN for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024; and
• failure to divest, and instead, willfully continued, all her business interests during her tenure as vice president for the years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

— BM, GMA News