Senate wants Sara’s tax records returned to House

The Senate impeachment court cannot keep in its custody the sealed green box containing the tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio and has decided to return it to the House of Representatives prosecution panel, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.

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Speaking over radio dzMM, Lacson said that in an all-senators’ caucus on Friday, it was agreed that the box from the Bureau of Internal Revenue should be returned to House prosecutors as “it is not the impeachment court or any court's role to unseal it.”

“One of the things we agreed upon in Friday’s senators’ caucus was to return the box because keeping it in our custody will violate the law,” Lacson said.

It was Sen. Francis Escudero who told them that the impeachment court has no authority to keep the box, which was not entered as evidence during the pre-trial conference due to objection from the defense panel.