Sara Duterte impeachment trial Day 33: AMLC witness spills P4.4 billion 'suspicious' bank transactions

The nine-hour impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday, including a one-hour lunch break, saw the proceedings tackle their biggest sum yet—P4.4 billion.

This came after Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura of the Anti-Money Laundering Council testified that the Anti-Money Laundering Council recorded P4.4 billion in covered and suspicious bank transactions under the names of the Vice President and her husband, Manases Carpio.

Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo, meanwhile, asked the Senate impeachment court to admonish its spokesperson, lawyer Reginald Tongol, for telling the media that the impeachment trial verdict would be out by December 16.

Presiding officer Chiz Escudero said that Tongol’s announcement was based on a pre-trial order or the court schedule agreed by both parties, although he clarified that it was simply a math equation and would not necessarily reflect the situation on the ground.

Tongol was quick to echo Escudero and said that the date was only a logistical projection hinged on the pre-trial order calendar and that he appreciates the correction of the Senator judges.

With that sidelight out of the way, Escudero allowed Buenaventura to testify on the bank transactions of the Vice President and her husband, saying the laws did not design AMLC as a passive institution.

“Section 8A [of the Anti-Money Laundering law] protects AMLC information against leaks, indiscriminate publication, and other unauthorized disclosure. It cannot be construed to disable the AMLC from performing the very investigative and litigation functions that Congress simultaneously preserved, or from complying with the lawful and particularized subpoenas subject to judicial safeguards,” Escudero said.

Escudero later ruled that bank accounts of the Vice President and her husband in foreign currency can be presented as evidence in the impeachment trial, overruling the objection of Senator-judge Imee Marcos.

Escudero said the confidentiality afforded to foreign currency deposits does not exempt them from the reporting and inquiry provisions under Republic Act No. 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Private prosecutor Mae Divinagracia highlighted prosecution witness Buenaventura’s 85.75% Bar Exam score, noting that he ranked 10th in the 2015 Bar Examinations.

Divinagracia said the AMLC’s official Bar Exam rating is 5.75 percentage points higher than the score of a lawyer whom she and Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense counsel Mark Vinluan know. Vinluan moved to remove the remark from the record, which the court granted.

On July 14, it was Vinluan who touted during his cross-examination of state auditor Roderick Wamil that the Vice President passed the Bar on one take and scored 80% on her Bar Exam.

But despite this seemingly light moment initiated by Divinagracia, AMLC’s Buenaventura later said he skipped lunch because he was nervous.

Buenaventura proceeded to testify that the Vice President had over P10 million in over-the-counter withdrawals and check encashment in December 2024.

These include:

• P2.371 million in an over-the-counter withdrawal reported by Land Bank of the Philippines-San Pedro on December 5, 2024
• P1.7 million in a check encashment reported by Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co.-Davao/Ecoland on December 20, 2024
• P5.969 million in a withdrawal reported by BDO Unibank Inc.-Davao Rizal on December 20, 2024

In addition, Buenaventura said the husband of Vice President Duterte withdrew a total of P41 million from two banks in a single day, specifically on August 6, 2024.

Of the P41 million, P23 million was withdrawn from BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO), while P18 million was withdrawn from Philippine National Bank (PNB).

Buenaventura also said that multiple bank accounts under Duterte's name were flagged by banks over alleged links to graft and corruption, drug trafficking, and malversation of public funds.

The AMLC official said at least two transactions of the Vice President involving premium payments to Mercantile Insurance Company Inc. in July and November 2019 were reported by the banks as suspicious transactions.

This is on top of the August 1, 2024 transaction with Philippine Savings Bank and a December 5, 2024 transaction with BDO Life Assurance Company Inc., which were also reported by the banks as suspicious transactions due to “drug trafficking and related offenses” and “malversation of public funds and property," respectively.

Billions

The AMLC official then dropped the biggest amount of the day: the P4.4 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions recorded under the bank accounts of the Duterte and her husband.

Buenaventura said the value was reduced to P4.4 billion from P6.7 billion, which the AMLC official testified in the House justice panel, after a correction was made by one of the subject banks, BPI.

Of the 4.4 billion, he also testified that P1.63 billion accounted for inflows, while P1.3 billion was for outflows.

He also said there were P1.4 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions with undetermined inflows and outflows.

Outside the courtroom, the Vice President’s spokesperson, Paolo Panelo, said the reduced amount of covered and suspicious transactions flagged by AMLC shows that those figures cannot be trusted. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/1004848/sara-duterte-camp-questions-contradictory-amlc-bank-transaction-data/story/?just_in

From China to PH

The money trail, as testified by Buenaventura, however, went beyond Philippine shores.

Buenaventura told the Senate impeachment court that Cale88 Foods Corporation, a company in which the Vice President’s husband has business interests, received P319 million from China and Hong Kong.

Throughout Day 33, Vinluan kept on harping that AMLC reports are confidential even if the Senate court already ruled otherwise.

Vinluan even cited that the defense won’t let such a violation of the law go unchallenged, and that anyone who would peruse AMLC reports, including journalists, could face jail time as provided by the Anti-Money Laundering law.

House lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro of Batangas, however, said such threat does not have weight because the AMLC report disclosures, including those revealed before the House justice panel hearings on the impeachment complaints against the Vice President, are all legal.

“We were exercising our duty as members of the House. We were exercising our duty, which is to initiate all impeachment cases. Remember that it is very clear in the Constitution that the House of Representatives has the exclusive power to initiate all impeachment cases,” Luistro said.

“On behalf of the prosecution team, kami po'y naninindigan na walang nilabag na batas, either the Anti-Money Laundering Act during the House proceedings, and we feel the same way now amid the ongoing impeachment trial and the reporting of the media being a free press since the impeachment is imbued with public interest,” Luistro added.

No closed doors for bribery allegation

Before the day ended, Luistro also said the House prosecution panel has yet to decide if it will drop its bribery charge in its impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, House lead prosecutor Gerville Luistro of Batangas said Monday.

“I wish to confirm what the other members of the prosecution said: that there are serious inclinations [to drop the bribery charge]. But the fact that we are not yet manifesting it formally before the [Senate] impeachment court only means that the prosecution is not yet ready to officially withdraw this Article,” Luistro said in a press conference.

“There are considerations we are addressing, and this is what we meant when we said that while there are discussions…serious inclinations towards withdrawing Article 3, until we are yet to tell it to the impeachment court, it does not become official,” Luistro added.

Finally, the House prosecution panel said that the Vice President should explain why a business linked to her husband is taking Chinese money.

“This has serious national security implications. We have to understand that this Chinese remittance is crucial, given China’s aggressive position, including firing water cannons at our Coast Guard personnel, in the West Philippine Sea. This has to be investigated more thoroughly,” House prosecution team adviser and ex-Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers said in a press conference.

“Para saan itong perang ito? Who is the direct beneficiary? Is this hush money so that the Vice President will be mum on the Chinese aggression against us in the West Philippine Sea? Is this in exchange for any favor? Whoever gave this money, this raises questions that merit investigation,” Barbers added. —LDF, GMA News