Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio must start carping about how the entire Marcos Jr. administration is ganging up on her since 2023 and creating the fiction that Malacanang and its henchmen planned to “kill” her during the same year, six months after she “won” an undeserved windfall from the Palace and mistakenly categorized it as her “own” confidential fund (CF). This is a myth since Sara’s budget from July 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022 came from the balance of the appropriations for then Vice President Leni Robredo. Sara does not have any power to create her own budget for the second semester of 2022. And she refused to meet Robredo to discuss the balance of the OVP funds.
As a lawyer who prides herself with getting a grade of 80% in the bar exams, Sara, as an elected public official, should have been familiar with the laws governing the filing of income tax returns (ITRs), Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) as well as the divestment in corporations, cash on hand and cash in banks, ownership of shares of stocks in businesses like trucking, bus companies, convenience stores, ice plants, tourism ventures, catering and law offices. On Monday, retired Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, an expert witness, told the court that the President and Vice President are constitutionally barred from directly or indirectly participating in any business while in office, citing possible abuse of power, grifting, self-dealing and dispensing favors for cronies, shareholders and special related interests.
Despite the attempts of the defense to prevent Tang from testifying, Sara’s lawyers failed to stop her from clarifying serious issues related to plunder, graft and corruption and unexplained wealth, raising issues on her political affiliation, her jurisprudential and legal expertise and even insinuated that she was acting as expert witness in exchange for an ambassadorship. I am not for sale, Tang declared, thus ruining the day for an eager-beaver counsel. In a straightforward manner, Tang said the unexplained wealth acquired by a public official like Sara may become ground for removal or dismissal under existing anticorruption laws. Article VII, Section 13 of the 1987 Constitution, Tang said the President and Vice President are barred from directly or indirectly practicing another profession, participating in business or having financial interests in government contracts, franchises or special privileges.
Elaborating on this, Tang said “they have greater powers… that’s why the prohibitions are more stringent for them, and because of the powers that they wield, there is a greater possibility of abuse in their office,” she said. Owning a stake in a corporation and participating in its operations are covered by the ban. “Meaning whether ownership in a corporation or participating either as a director or as an officer of the corporation, that is prohibited,” she said. The ban also extends to indirect arrangements and beneficial ownership, as when assets are placed in another person’s name. An official must divest upon assuming office, Cabotaje-Tang said, noting that “there is a need to divest upon assumption of office immediately, and within 30 days.” Sara has not confirmed divesting from corporations in which she still maintains shares. However, she has succeeded in tying herself in knots, and the prosecution is amused.
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, Atty. Karen Batu, officer in charge of the Office of the Ombudsman Records Division, said that Duterte’s SALNs from 2021 to 2025 did not declare cash on hand and bank deposits, even as the same were disclosed in previous years. The filing of SALN is mandatory under the 1987 Constitution and two other laws, namely Republic Act 6713 (RA 6173), otherwise known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (CCESPOE) and RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. Sara’s lawyers tried to explain away Sara’s error, saying her liquid assets were bundled together under the “Other Personal Properties” category in her SALNs. Tang argued this is anomalous and flays the law.
Tang asserted “there is a specific or a categorical directive” in the Section 8 (c) of RA 6713 that cash on hand and cash in banks “must be itemized” in SALNs. Section 8 (c) pertains to “all other assets such as investments, cash on hand or in banks, stocks, bonds, and the like.” Tang’s explanation destroyed the pained excuse of defense lawyer Mark Vinluan that the law “does not provide any prohibition” against the lumping together of cash and Section 8 (c) “does not provide for a specific line disclosure for cash.” This excuse was cited by defense lawyer Michael Poa on the issue of the missing cash on hand and cash in bank portions of Sara’s SALNs. With these categories missing in Sara’s SALNs from 2019 to 2025, Sara’s declared net worth rose from P7.2-million in 2007 to P98.6-million in 2025 from P7.2-million in 2007, or a 13.6-fold rise from the time she became Davao City vice mayor in 2007 to 2025, when she was plucked from the city to become vice president.
Private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim Alih also zeroed in on Sara’s declarations of business and financial interests, with Batu testifying that Sara declared no shares of stock in 2007 but reported “stocks equity paid” in 2008 but no declared shares the following year. From 2010 to 2012, Sara disclosed various business and financial interests but conveniently did not declare the amount of her shares in those corporations. It has become Sara’s habit not to reveal anything about the value of her business interests in Davao City and beyond. In her SALNs from 2016 to 2025, Batu said Sara “did not declare any shares of stock.”
Alih saw a red flag in the statement and argued that Sec. 8 of RA 6713 requires public officials to declare personal property and their acquisition costs. Shares of stock and other investments are personal property that must be included and itemized in the SALN. Under RA 1379, Tang explained, a presumption of unlawful acquisition obtains when a public official acquires property during incumbency that is “grossly or manifestly disproportionate” to the official’s salary, lawful income and earnings from legitimately acquired property. Investigators should examine not only an official’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), but also the official’s lifestyle and income tax returns, she added. Repeated omissions, as what Sara committed, could indicate deliberate concealment, she warned. What Sara continues to commit is the steady stream of daily vaniloquent flapdoodle about her being ready to wrest the presidency, to which she believes she was entitled since birth. Who says no one could be any worse than Donald Trump?#
