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Sara Duterte spox says NBI’s SALN report ‘a shameless smear campaign’

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Vice President Sara Duterte speaks to her legal counsel outside the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, September 5, 2026. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA — Vice President Sara Duterte’s spokesperson on Friday said the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) report on her alleged property misdeclarations was part of a “shameless smear campaign.”

Duterte’s spokesman Paolo Panelo said NBI Director Melvin Matibag held press conferences on the alleged discrepancies in her statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) “without previously and specifically informing the Vice President of the charge, much less affording her an opportunity to respond.”

Panelo said that the NBI turned over its report to the Office of the Ombudsman “most likely to avoid the immediate, informed, and thorough debunking she delivered when she was previously given the opportunity to answer Director Matibag’s earlier Rodulfo Gracioso project.”

“That is a shameless smear campaign against the Vice President using public funds, headlined by a man with a documented conflict of interest against her,” Panelo said. 

He said this was “just the latest example of the Marcos administration’s weaponization of government institutions for political persecution.”  

“If the NBI’s findings were truly credible or reliable, then why were they excluded by the prosecution in the impeachment trial where alleged undeclared or misdeclared properties in the Vice President’s SALN are precisely at issue, and where the NBI’s supposed findings can be authenticated, challenged, and rebutted by the defense for the world to see?” Panelo added.

He said Duterte “maintains that she declared all her assets and liabilities in her SALN correctly and in good faith, and all allegations to the contrary are false.”

“She is confident this will be proven in the impeachment trial, and if necessary, before the Ombudsman once given formal notice,” Panelo said. 

The NBI on Monday presented photos and videos of properties linked to Duterte and her family, saying some allegedly declared as agricultural land reportedly had mansions, swimming pools and helipads.

Duterte on Tuesday denied owning the property mentioned by the NBI.