Trillanes vindicated anew? AMLC says Carpio firm got P319-M from China

MANILA, Philippines — It appears that former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has been vindicated again, as a government official has confirmed the food company owned by lawyer Manases Carpio, husband of Vice President Sara Duterte, got funds over P319 million from China.

At Duterte’s impeachment trial on Monday, counsel for the prosecution Mae Divinagracia asked Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura about the total amount of inward financial transactions involving Carpio’s CALE88 Foods Corp., or money that came from mainland China and Hong Kong to the said company.

In response, Buenaventura said it is P319,326,770.41 — an amount that is close to the figure provided by Trillanes during a press briefing last Friday.

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“Let’s go to Table 5 of your summary, based on your summary, Table 5, and the CTRs (covered transactions report) and STRs (suspicious transactions report) of CALE88, how much was the entire value of remittances from China that CALE88 received?” Divinagracia asked.

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READ: AMLC confirms suspicious transactions made by Sara Duterte, kin 

“The entire value, your Honor, the aggregate amount placed under aggregate Letter c, aggregate PHP with subtotal a, what was indicated in our tabular summary is P319,326,770.41, your Honor.  Based on the records, our tabular summary records,” Buenaventura said.

“‘The title of Table 5 your Honors is the CTRs pertaining to inward remittances to CALE88 Foods Corporation from (a) China and (b) other countries, (Item 5) your Honor,” he added.

Aside from this the table also showed that there are a total of 143 CTRs and three STRs on CALE88; 141 of the 143 CTRs were financial transactions from China and two from Hong Kong.

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Meanwhile, all three STRs involved transactions from China.

Buenaventura, during the hearing of the House of Representatives’ committee on justice on the two impeachment complaints against Duterte, explained that covered transactions referred to bank transactions over P500,000, which banks report to AMLC.

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Suspicious transactions, meanwhile, refer to those whose amounts are not determined, but were reported by banks because there is something questionable in terms of how funds were sourced.

There are other CTRs recorded by AMLC outside of China, including 13 from Ukraine, six each from Russia and Kazakhstan, four from Lithuania, two each from Tajikistan and South Africa, and one each from the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

All in all, there are 178 CTRs and three STRs, representing a total amount of P368.8 million worth of transactions.

Regarding the suspicious transactions from China, Buenaventura said that these were flagged because “there is no underlying legal or trade obligation, purpose, or economic justification.”

Trillanes signified his desire to testify before the Senate Impeachment Court, but eventually withdrew to supposedly relieve the prosecution panel of pressure.  Instead, the former senator presented his would have been testimony during a press conference in San Juan last Friday.

One of the items that Trillanes discussed was the alleged P319 million that went into CALE88 — despite having a paid-up capital of P125,000 from 2021 to 2025, having low electricity costs, and no rank-and-file employees.

Trillanes said that the P319 million was sent by Chinese firms in tranches, from 2023 to 2025.

Meanwhile, the Tapang at Malasakit Foundation, which Duterte listed herself as an incorporator in her 2022 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth, reportedly received a P150 million donation from the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines in 2019.

READ: Trillanes links P319M China funds to firm of Sara Duterte’s husband

This is not the first time that numbers presented by Trillanes matched documents and reports from AMLC.

Last April 22, when the House committee on justice discussed the impeachment complaints against Duterte, Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima randomly picked 18 financial transactions listed in Trillanes’ annexes and asked AMLC to check if this was part of their investigation.

READ: Trillanes vindicated: AMLC confirms Sara Duterte’s 18 transactions

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Eventually, Buenaventura confirmed that 18 out of 18 randomly-picked transactions from Trillanes’ affidavit matched the AMLC’s records. /das