Prosecution flags 'floating' P41.7-M manager's check linked to Rodrigo, Sara Duterte

The House prosecution panel on Wednesday flagged a P41.7-million worth of manager’s check linked to former president Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Sara Duterte that was supposedly “floating” for years and was not being reflected in year-end balances.

On Day 35 of the impeachment trial, Marwin Galvez, division head for Central Manila branches of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), confirmed the existence of a joint peso time deposit opened on January 22, 2010, in the bank’s Julia Vargas Branch under the name “Rodrigo Roa Duterte or Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Sara Z. Duterte.”

During his direct examination by private prosecutor James Bryan Alih, Galvez said the time deposit had a principal amount of P40,650,000.

Galvez said that the time deposit had 12 rollover periods or renewals. At the last renewal in February 2011, he said the amount already increased to P41.7 million, including the interest.

“If a time deposit certificate matures and is no longer renewed, the proceeds of the matured time deposit are credited to the settlement account,” Galvez said, affirming that the settlement account is the Julia Vargas Branch.

In March 2011, the BPI official said a credit and debit memo showed that a manager’s check was purchased for P41.7 million.

Galvez noted that a manager’s check has a period of validity of only six months.

Seven months after the purchase of the manager’s check, or in October 2011, Alih pointed out that another credit and debit memo reflected that a manager's check with the same amount was unutilized.

“When you say unutilized, Your Honor, ibig sabihin hindi po siya nagamit, depende sa sitwasyon. ‘Pag lumagpas ng six months nang hindi nagagamit ‘yung payee, kung kanino nakapangalan ang manager’s check, nasa desisyon ng payee kung nasa kanya na ang position ng manager’s check,” Galvez explained.

(When you say ‘unutilized,’ Your Honor, it means it wasn’t used, depending on the situation. If six months pass without the manager’s check being used, it is up to the payee or the person named on the check to decide what to do with it.)

“Puwede po ang kliyente, kung saan galing ang pondo na pinambili ng manager’s check, kung hindi na niya gagamitin ang manager’s check, puwede niyang i-request na ibalik po ito sa pinanggalingan ng account,” he added.

(The client, the one whose funds were used to purchase the manager’s check, can also request that the amount be returned to the source account if they no longer intend to use the check.)

Defense counsel Michael Poa objected to the presentation of evidence on the ground of relevance.

Alih said that the prosecution intends to prove a "pattern," that a transaction in 2011 moved around for several more years and was later on used to purchase insurance policies.

“We will attempt to show, Your Honor, that later, this amount—this P41 million, tapos meron pa pong (and an additional) P55 million, at some point, we will try to prove, magsasama sila ulit sa (they will be combined in the) Julia Vargas Branch, and they will use this to purchase several insurance policies for the same amount,” the private prosecutor said.

“Ang punto lang naman po eventually is that ‘yung manager’s check na pinapaikot, hindi nakikita sa year-end balance kasi naka-float ‘yung pera na ‘yun. ‘Yun lang naman ‘yung gusto naming i-establish as a baseline,” he added.

(The only point is that the manager's check that is being circulated is not reflected in the year-end balance because the money is already floating. That's all we want to establish as a baseline.)

To recall, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV claimed that the Vice President did not declare millions in time deposit assets in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) from 2007 to 2010 when she was Davao City vice mayor.

The former lawmaker said that, based on the research of his team, Sara Duterte had undeclared dollar and peso time deposits from 2007 until 2010.

He said the Vice President also did not declare a million dollars' worth of life insurance in her 2010 SALN.

Duterte's camp rejected the claims of Trillanes.

Duterte's spokesperson Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. said Trillanes has been repeatedly lying about the vice president and her family for years.

"Since 2016, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has been peddling the same exhausted lies regarding Extrajudicial Killings (EJKs), fabricated drug links, imaginary unexplained wealth, baseless corruption allegations, and fictional China connections against the Duterte family," Panelo said in a statement. —AOL, GMA News