Metro Manila, Philippines – A wide gap between the reported financial transactions of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio, and her declared assets seemingly cannot be accounted for on Tuesday, Oct. 6, as the prosecution wrapped up its presentation of the witness from the Anti Money Laundering Council or AMLC.
Impeachment court Presiding Officer Chiz Escudero tested the figures against her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs) from years when Duterte was a Davao City official until she became vice president.
On the second day of AMLC executive director Ronel Buenaventura’s testimony, Escudero examined the reported transactions against Duterte’s SALNs, using several hypothetical calculations to test how the figures could be reconciled.
For 2022 to 2025, Escudero noted that the couple had ₱424.18 million in reported transactions, while his addition of Duterte’s declared assets for the same years amounted to about ₱336 million.
Escudero acknowledged that SALNs from different years should not ordinarily be added together because they reflect assets at the end of each reporting year. He said he nevertheless used the computation to test the figures.
“I tried to bring things to an absurd possibility to find out and test a hypothesis. In-add ko po yung SALN ng ikalawang pangulo,” Escudero told Buenaventura.
He then applied a similar calculation to the period from 2007 to 2025, saying the combined SALN figures amounted to about ₱840 million, still far below the ₱4.4 billion in aggregate covered and suspicious transactions reported by the AMLC for Duterte and Carpio over the same period.
Escudero said the comparison would require the transaction figure to be more than five times the combined SALN amount to account for the reported ₱4.4 billion.
In a third scenario, Escudero also questioned how ₱424.18 million in reported transactions could have passed through the couple’s accounts from 2022 to 2025 when Duterte’s declared monthly salary was around ₱350,000.
In each scenario, Buenaventura said he could not explain how the figures could be reconciled, stressing that he was basing his answers on the records reported to the AMLC.
“Can you explain how it could reach that amount?” Escudero asked after comparing the ₱4.4 billion in reported transactions with the SALN figures.
“I am unable to explain or answer that, your honor,” Buenaventura replied.
Escudero then pressed the AMLC chief further, asking whether he could think of any possible explanation for the discrepancy.
“On top of my head, nahihirapan po ako. Apologies po. I cannot explain it,” Buenaventura said.
For the House prosecution panel, the exchange reinforced its allegation under Article II of the impeachment complaint, which accuses Duterte of unexplained wealth.
“Very clear. Hindi nga ma-explain ni AMLC eh, paano mo i-explain?” House prosecutor Zia Adiong said.
Private prosecutor Jay Tolosa also pointed to Escudero’s hypothetical computation, saying that even if the SALNs were added together, the resulting amount still fell short of the reported transactions.
“Yaman to na [This is wealth that] he cannot explain,” Tolosa said, referring to Buenaventura.
But the AMLC testimony did not establish that the transactions were illegal.
During cross-examination, Buenaventura agreed that filing a suspicious transaction report is required under the law and does not, by itself, establish that an unlawful transaction or money laundering occurred.
AMLC rules define suspicious transactions based on red flags that may warrant further investigation.
Bank officials
The prosecution then moved from AMLC summaries to the supporting bank records, presenting bank officials to authenticate documents being used to support the Article II allegations.
LandBank of the Philippines San Pedro-Davao branch manager Eunice Sumatra was the first official to testify.
Private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim Alih said Sumatra was presented to authenticate records involving one of Duterte’s accounts, with other bank representatives expected to establish the remaining financial records.
LandBank Davao R. Magsaysay branch manager Raquel Dela Cerna also testified.
She said Duterte had two accounts at the branch, both already closed, while Carpio had an active account. His year-end balances at the branch ranged from about ₱115,000 to ₱1.4 million from 2022 to 2025.
In its offer of testimony, the prosecution said bank records covering 2022 to 2025 showed at least 30 accounts involving Duterte and Carpio across eight banks, with more than ₱190 million in cumulative year-end balances that it said were not declared in their joint SALNs.
The defense disputed the implication of those balances. “That is something they will have to prove,” defense lawyer Michael Poa said.
During cross-examination, defense counsel CJ Narvasa also elicited Dela Cerna’s confirmation that being married to an account holder does not automatically make a spouse a joint account holder, authorized signatory or person entitled to access the other spouse’s account information.
China connection
During the testimony of AMLC’s Buenaventura, Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros raised the reported Chinese sources of funds received by Cale88 Foods Corporation, a company linked to Carpio.
AMLC records showed that Cale88 received about ₱319.33 million in inward remittances from China and Hong Kong, including ₱315.94 million from mainland China and ₱3.39 million from Hong Kong.
Hontiveros said research by her office showed that some of the Chinese firms identified as remitters were state-owned enterprises.
She cited China National Township Enterprises, which she said was formerly under China’s Ministry of Agriculture and later became a state-owned agricultural enterprise supervised by China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
She also cited Beijing Zhenweifang Food Company, saying it had a link to Xinjiang Fruit Industry Group, which she described as a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
Buenaventura said he could not confirm the companies’ alleged government links because the AMLC subpoena only covered the transaction records. He said he would take note of the information from Hontiveros.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila rejected the allegations as a “false narrative.”
The National Security Council said it would assess the information presented during the impeachment proceedings and examine any possible national security implications arising from the reported foreign financial inflows.
