𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀! 𝗕𝗜𝗥 𝗕𝗼𝘅 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗩𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗡𝗼

The House committee on justice tried to push the impeachment fight into another lane on April 29—opening the sealed box of Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) records tied to Vice President Sara Duterte, her husband Manases Carpio, and their firms. It didn’t happen. When the motion was finally put to a vote, the panel shut it down hard: 38 lawmakers voted against opening, 6 voted in favor, and none abstained.

The move to open the box was raised by Rep. Leila de Lima, but the numbers showed the committee wasn’t buying the urgency—or wasn’t willing to cross the line the BIR itself flagged. Because here’s the catch: when BIR Commissioner Charlito Mendoza submitted the records earlier (during the April 22 hearing), he attached a condition rooted in the tax code—the documents should only be examined in an executive session, not blasted out in open hearing. That condition became the pressure point: open it publicly, and critics argue you’re flirting with a legal mess.

This isn’t just a “box” story—it’s a process story. The panel already had a taste of this last week when it voted to defer the opening. April 29 just confirmed what the committee’s majority is signaling: they’re not ready to turn tax files into public spectacle, at least not on a motion-led vote that could raise questions about confidentiality and procedure.

So Duterte’s camp gets a clear talking point out of this: the committee couldn’t even agree to open what it subpoenaed—and the BIR’s own warning gives cover to lawmakers who don’t want to be seen as forcing disclosure outside the lane the law allows. Whether this box gets opened later in executive session or becomes another political football, the bottom line today is simple: they tried, they voted, they failed.

Image from Inday Sara Duterte FB