Witness: VP’s unexplained wealth may be as high as P1.5B

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte’s unexplained wealth from 2022 to 2025 could reach as much as P1.5 billion, forensic financial analyst Atty. Alexander Cabrera alleged Monday.

Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who presided over the impeachment court proceedings, asked Cabrera how much of Duterte’s wealth might have remained undeclared if he had not taken a “conservative” approach in analyzing her financial records.

“If you are not conservative … in your expertise, and based on your review of the documents, what is the maximum amount?” Escudero asked.

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Cabrera replied: “I didn’t include the confidential funds, so that’s P475 million. Our discrepancy with the AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council) … if we weren’t conservative with the AMLC, it would be P100 million. If I weren’t conservative with Gencorp [Industries Inc.] … the impact would be about P250 million.”

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Adding these amounts to his initial estimate of P817 million in unexplained wealth, Cabrera said the total could nearly double.

“It will almost double … P1.5 billion. That will be unexplained wealth,” he said.

READ: Analyst: VP Sara didn’t declare P817-million wealth

Escudero also examined how much of the P817 million estimate would remain if income attributed to Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, from their business interests were excluded. These included Gencorp, Metro Chow King Foods and Cale 88 Food Corp.

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“If I doubt Gencorp, its share of the P817,874,867 total is approximately 26%, or 25.9%, equivalent to P212,629,718 … If I doubt what you did with Metro Chow and Cale 88, their combined total is P142,198,690, or 17.3% of your total P817 million,” Escudero said.

Escudero then said that excluding those business interests would still leave more than half of the estimated unexplained wealth.

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“So if I remove those two, 56.6% would still remain from your calculation. Based on the bank accounts and insurance policies, P463,046,459 in unexplained wealth would remain, based on your computation,” he said.