Escudero: Sara Duterte, husband's total net worth doesn't match bank transactions

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The total net worth of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio, as stated in their joint Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) from 2002 to 2025 do not match the millions of bank transactions under their name, Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero said Tuesday.

At the same time, Escudero said that the P4.4 billion of covered and suspicious bank transactions from 2007 to 2025 recorded under the couple's name do not match their joint SALN declarations covering the same period.

Escudero made the observation based on the testimony of Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura before the Senate impeachment court

“P424 million ang pumasok at lumabas sa bank accounts ni Vice President Duterte at ng kanyang asawa from 2022 to 2025. I try to bring things in its absurd possibility to find out and test the hypothesis. In-add ko iyong SALN ng Pangalawang Pangulo mula 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025. Hindi naman dapat i-add ‘yun kasi iba’t ibang taon. [Pero] in total, P336 million. Hindi pa rin umabot ng P424 million,” Escudero said during Day 34 of the impeachment trial of Duterte.

(P424 million inflows and outflows from 2025 to 2025. I added the SALN from 2022 to 2025. Actually, you cannot add it but even so, the total is P336 million. It won't reach P424 million.)

“Meaning to say, on the assumption na walang ginastos mula sa lahat na assets nila at lahat na dineposit sa bangko, hindi pa rin aabot sa ganiting kalaking halaga,” he added.

(Even if they left their entire assets untouched and just deposited them all in banks, it won't reach that amount.)

Escudero said the case is the same for the P4.4 billion worth of covered and suspicious bank transactions under the names of Vice President and her husband from 2007 to 2025 when compared with SALNs for the same period.

“Yung P4.4 billion covering the period 2007 to 2025. Again, I bring it to its absurd point. We tried to add to all of the amounts in the combined SALNs for those covered period of 2007 to 2025. It totaled only P840 million,” he said.

“You would need five times at least five times of the combined SALN [net worth] total from 2007 to 2025 to be able to explain the huge amount of P4.4 billion in [bank] transactions,” he added.

In both instances, Escudero asked Buenaventura what would be the possible arithmetic that would match the SALN declarations with bank transactions.

“Can you explain how it could reach that amount knowing that the highest SALN in 2025 was at P98 million and the lowest SALN in 2007 was at P7 million? Can you explain it, Sir,” he said.

Buenaventura replied, “I am unable to explain or answer that, Your Honor.”

Escudero pressed, “But in the realm of possibilities, is there a possible explanation that can come to your mind as to how this can be? If you know.”

The AMLC official responded by saying, “On top of my head, nahihirapan po ako. Apologies po. I cannot explain it (It is really tough to explain).” —AOL, GMA News