Lead defense counsel Sheila Sison on Tuesday argued that the property declared in Vice President Sara Duterte’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) was the same property identified in documents presented by the defense, rejecting the prosecution’s claim that they were different.
Sison said prosecutors should have presented additional documents, such as tax declarations or deeds of sale, to establish that a separate property existed and was not declared in Duterte’s SALN.
“If that is the contention of the prosecution ... it's very easy for them to just present another set of tax declaration documents, deed of absolute sales, registration documents of the property stated in the SALN of the vice president to show that indeed that is a different property,” Sison told the Senate impeachment court.
She noted that the prosecution had already rested its case and formally offered its evidence, which the court ruled on Nov. 5.
Sison described the prosecution’s argument as “hair-splitting,” insisting that the properties identified by the two defense witnesses corresponded to what Duterte had declared in her SALN.
“We all know that this is the same property,” she said.
She added that if prosecutors were confident that another property existed beyond those identified by the defense witnesses, they should have presented documentary evidence to establish it.
