No rush to release Sara Duterte's financial records as inventory takes place, says impeachment court

The Senate Impeachment Court is in no rush to release to the parties the financial and tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte, saying it is conducting a careful inventory of the documents.

According to Sandra Aguinaldo's report on "24 Oras," on Friday, Senate Impeachment Court Spokesperson Atty. Regie Tongol said that while it has received Duterte’s records, the court still needed to do an inventory.

“The Office of the Clerk of the Court is currently undertaking a meticulous and highly secure inventory of all received documents. It continues to coordinate with the concerned banking institutions to facilitate their retrieval and submission of the remaining historical documents requiring additional processing time,” said Tongol.

“The impeachment Court will not rush the chain of custody. Security and accuracy take precedence over speed,” he added.

Tongol said the clerk of court will release the documents to the parties only after the meticulous inventory process is complete, and in the case of the AMLC, after the presiding officer completes his ‘in camera’ review.

Tongol said that the court will only release the documents to all parties once inventory is complete.

The impeachment court has already acquired the couple’s tax and financial records from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the banks.

READ: Mans Carpio says release of tax records should undergo judicial review

Meanwhile, Duterte’s husband's lawyer Manases Carpio said that there were legal issues surrounding the court’s acquisition of records concerning his joint accounts with his wife. His party is studying the possibility of seeking the Court of Tax Appeals Supreme Court’s intervention.

Carpio’s counsel Neil Abayon clarified that they were not trying to stop the impeachment trial, but they were merely seeking to protect Carpio’s rights, given that he is a private citizen.

“He is not an impeachable officer, so how would we respond to the impeachment court? And all of his documents will be divulged there?” Abayon said in Filipino. –Jean Mangalum/NB, GMA News