{"id":20652,"date":"2026-07-05T05:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/?p=20652"},"modified":"2026-07-05T05:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:37:10","slug":"impeachment-court-rejects-safekeeping-of-bir-green-box-to-return-it-to-prosecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/impeachment-court-rejects-safekeeping-of-bir-green-box-to-return-it-to-prosecution\/","title":{"rendered":"IMPEACHMENT COURT REJECTS SAFEKEEPING OF \u2018BIR GREEN BOX;\u2019 TO RETURN IT TO PROSECUTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Impeachment Court trying the case of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio is not meant to safekeep the so-called “BIR Green Box” containing the Vice President’s tax records, and may thus return it to the House prosecution team, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson said Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lacson said the Impeachment Court cannot even decide on whether to open the box – much less unseal it – and may even risk being cited for grave abuse of discretion if it does so.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“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. It is not the Impeachment Court or any court’s role to unseal it,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino in an interview on DZMM radio.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Sen. Francis Escudero is right in saying the Impeachment Court has no business safekeeping the evidence because it is a court – unless it is presented and admitted as evidence before the court by the prosecution or defense,” he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lacson said that under Sec. 71 of the National Internal Revenue Code, opening the box containing the Vice President’s tax records will need written authority from the President upon the recommendation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Department of Finance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He added another circumstance that will allow the unsealing of the boxes would be a written waiver from the respondent.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also, Lacson warned that if the Impeachment Court decides on whether to unseal the box in accordance with the prosecution’s position, the Court may open itself to charges of grave abuse of discretion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The prosecution should not pass the burden of unsealing the box to the Impeachment Court. The prosecution may ask permission from the Office of the President to unseal the box. But it should not pass the burden to us because we will not do it,” he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lacson said the majority bloc will leave it to Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian to designate a spokesperson for the Impeachment Court, who he said should preferably be a lawyer and must closely coordinate with Senate Sec. Renato Bantug Jr., the Impeachment Clerk of Court.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for the presiding officer of the Impeachment Court, Lacson said the majority bloc hopes to finalize this in a caucus on Monday morning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For his part, Lacson gave a “1,000 percent” guarantee that he will base his decision on the evidence.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

“As far as I’m concerned, I guarantee 1,000 percent I will base my decision on the evidence, not on political alliances or personal biases. That I am sure of,” he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He also maintained that the trial must proceed regardless of the number of attendees, noting that the number of senator judges present becomes an issue only in the rendering of the decision.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We cannot allow the court to be held hostage if some refuse to attend or even boycott the proceedings. This is our constitutional duty,” he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“In fairness to the Vice President, the trial must proceed so that if a verdict is reached to acquit her, she will be cleared. But the court cannot be held hostage by those who refuse to attend,” he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Impeachment Court trying the case of Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio is not meant to safekeep the so-called “BIR Green Box” containing the Vice President’s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box.jpg",927,598,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box-300x194.jpg",300,194,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box-768x495.jpg",640,413,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box.jpg",640,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box.jpg",927,598,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box.jpg",927,598,false],"kreeti-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box.jpg",927,598,false],"kreeti-featured":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box.jpg",927,598,false],"kreeti-medium":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box-720x530.jpg",720,530,true],"kreeti-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/green-box-350x350.jpg",350,350,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"National<\/a>","tag_info":"National","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20654,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20652\/revisions\/20654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}