Metro Manila, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s true wealth overwhelmingly exceeds her declared net worth, said a financial forensic expert who detailed the alleged undeclared assets and income of the vice president and her husband, Manases “Mans” Carpio, from 2022 to 2025 valued at over ₱817 million on Day 37 of the impeachment trial on Friday, Oct. 9.
The House prosecution panel presented the report of Alexander Cabrera, a certified public accountant and lawyer who was former chairman of Isla Lipana & Co., the Philippine member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
He compared Duterte’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) with bank records, tax returns, corporate filings, and other financial documents involving the vice president, her husband Manases “Mans” Carpio, and their business interests.
₱817.87M over four years
Cabrera put the couple’s alleged undeclared assets and income at ₱817,874,867, combining cash, other personal and real properties, and income attributed to companies linked to them, including Cale88 Foods Corporation, Metro City Chow and GenCorp Industries, Inc.
His report calculated the amounts at ₱190.6 million in 2022, ₱167.3 million in 2023, ₱264.2 million in 2024 and ₱195.7 million in 2025.
The bank balance component alone amounted to ₱60.21 million in 2022, ₱80.70 million in 2023, ₱23.17 million in 2024, and ₱43.61 million in 2025.
Earlier witnesses had testified that Duterte’s SALNs did not list cash on hand or in bank accounts for these years, although her defense has argued that cash was included under other personal properties.
Cabrera included Carpio’s financial records, citing the couple’s absolute community of property. He said his computation avoided counting the same assets repeatedly across the four years.
On a question by Senator-judge Bam Aquino, Cabrera agreed that adding the ₱817.87 million to Duterte’s declared net worth of ₱98.66 million in 2025 would yield approximately ₱916 million.
‘Tinikling scheme’
Cabrera also examined banking transactions he considered unusual, including the use of manager’s checks that could keep funds out of year-end bank balances.
The practice, which he likened to the folk dance tinikling, involved issuing manager’s checks payable to the account holder, leaving them undeposited until they became stale, and the funds returned to the account. The amount would not appear in the account’s year-end balance while the check remained outstanding.
Cabrera flagged ₱41 million in cash withdrawals and encashments from banks in Davao City on Aug. 6, 2024, carried out in six transactions within about an hour.
“Masyado pong malalaki yung withdrawal in cash. ₱41 million hindi po normal na withdrawal po yan,” Cabrera said.
[Translation: The cash withdrawals were too large. A ₱41-million cash withdrawal is not normal.]
He also questioned the couple’s credit card spending, including ₱299,142 in two purchases at Nike SM Davao Annex in a single day, ₱205,007.29 at Tokyo restaurant Ginza Inakaya, and ₱256,882.50 at a Nike store in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
His report also covered insurance policies, investments, firearms and other personal properties that he said were not adequately reflected in Duterte’s SALNs.
Cabrera further identified ₱11.35 million in checks paid to Lourdes Lebosada, whom he identified as Duterte’s dentist and Carpio’s business partner in Cale88, with a 47.5 percent ownership stake in the company.
Corporate links, overseas remittances
Cabrera also examined the couple’s business interests and their corporate connections.
Metro City Chow’s shareholdings showed Duterte with a 20 percent stake and Jaime T. Cruz with 79.88 percent. Cruz, a former special ambassador to China, has also appeared in the corporate records of a number of companies linked to the Duterte-Carpio family.
GenCorp’s filings, meanwhile, listed JTC Group of Companies as its largest shareholder, with a 54.99% stake. The company’s records did not list Duterte as a shareholder, although she declared GenCorp as a business interest in her SALNs. Cabrera described the overlapping ownership and directors among companies as interlocking corporate interests.
“Honorable Diokno, the reason why I think VP Sara included Gencorp in her SALN is because Gencorp is very, very important. It has a huge value,” Cabrera said, adding, “Within Gencorp is at least five Jollibee branches,” with one branch estimated at a conservative ₱35 million based on open access information.
The analyst also examined remittances received by Cale88, including ₱193.95 million from China and ₱7.64 million from Ukraine, alongside transfers from other countries.
At a post-trial briefing, House prosecution team adviser Ace Barbers said Cabrera’s testimony tied the financial records presented by earlier witnesses, making the prosecution confident that the evidence in the unexplained wealth and false SALN will merit a conviction.
“I must say that this last witness na pinresenta natin ended with a bang,” Barbers said.
[Translation: I must say that this last witness we presented ended with a bang.]
House prosecution spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong said the report went beyond the figures by connecting the banking transactions and corporate interests into what the prosecution described as a pattern of deliberate concealment.
Defense to question findings
The defense questioned how Cabrera obtained access to financial records it considered confidential. Presiding Officer Chiz Escudero said the prosecution should establish the chain of custody of the documents used in the report.
Escudero and Sen. Ping Lacson also cautioned that Cabrera’s findings were an expert opinion, not a conclusive or binding determination. The senator-judges will weigh his testimony alongside the evidence and arguments presented by the defense.
Cabrera is scheduled to face cross-examination on Monday, Oct. 12.
“We will not rest because the team will definitely have to work on cross-examination on Monday,” defense spokesperson Michael Poa said in a press conference.
He added that the defense has listed over 90 witnesses, as the House prosecution team dropped the bribery charges against the vice president.
“These are the identified and reserved witnesses. So as to the number of witnesses that we will be presenting, again, I can’t give a number right now because that will be something that we will have to discuss within the team depending on what we feel will be best for the defense,” Poa said.
