Vice Pres. Sara Duterte held a press conference at OVP Central Office, Mandaluyong City on Feb. 18, 2026. In the same briefing, she announced her presidential bid for 2028. Screen grabbed from Inday Sara Duterte livestream.
House prosecutors said Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team had withdrawn its earlier objection to the marking of a sealed box containing her tax records as evidence in the Senate impeachment trial.
The defense, however, wanted the marking conducted in executive session, a condition questioned by prosecutors who argued that the process should be done openly before the impeachment court.
Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima said Duterte’s lawyers had initially opposed even the marking of the Bureau of Internal Revenue documents but later agreed to allow the evidence to be catalogued.
De Lima said the prosecution would insist on opening the sealed BIR box because the documents were part of its evidence, stressing that marking the records would only allow both sides to inspect and identify them, not yet determine their admissibility.
The box, which contained the tax records of Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio, was turned over by the BIR to the House justice committee in April but remained sealed, with tape and the signature of BIR Commissioner Charlito Mendoza to prevent tampering.
Prosecutors said the records were important to allegations of unexplained wealth because they could be compared with Duterte’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth and an Anti-Money Laundering Council report on her bank transactions.
The Senate impeachment court also served its pretrial order to both camps after the five-day pretrial conference, covering witnesses, evidence, hearing dates and the order of presentation for the articles of impeachment.
The prosecution, which added more lawyers to its team ahead of the July 6 trial, also vowed to oppose any move to dismiss the case without full proceedings and said the impeachment court may subpoena reluctant witnesses, including former Davao City sheriff Abe Andres, while police continued security monitoring for the trial.