Sara Duterte trial recap, Oct. 7: VP and husband's millions

MANILA, Philippines — A record-breaking fifteen executives from banks and insurers took the witness stand in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Wednesday, October 7, to authenticate documents that attest to her and her husband's alleged wealth.

Article II charges Duterte with amassing wealth disproportionate to her lawful income and failing to fully and truthfully disclose her and her husband Manases Carpio’s assets in her SALNs (statements of assets, liabilities and net worth) for 2022, 2023 and 2024. 

It also accuses her of failing to divest from businesses, as the Constitution requires of the president and vice president. 

In calling the bank and insurance witnesses, the prosecution sought to put on record the year-end balances in the couple’s accounts, so it can compare each year’s balance against the SALN for the same year. 

Prosecutors have argued the records are meant to establish a baseline of Duterte’s wealth and a “pattern of non-disclosure.”

The marathon hearing on Wednesday laid out two clashing ways of reading Duterte’s finances. It's the prosecution's argument that there are serious indications of undeclared wealth just by comparing the SALN and bank balances alone. Citing bank records, the prosecution has pointed out that the Duterte couple had P59 million in bank balances at the end of 2022, her first year in office, against P13.325 million in declared “other personal properties.”

The defense, meanwhile, has countered that transactions from before she took office are irrelevant and that not all the transactions being wielded as evidence by the prosecution were signed off by Duterte herself. 

Duterte and her husband have more than 30 to 40 total bank accounts across eight different banks, according to the prosecution.  

Here are the three highlights from the proceedings on October 7.

1. The ‘tinikling’ manager’s checks

A bank executive told the court that P41.7 million from a time deposit in the names of Sara Duterte and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was repeatedly moved into bank-issued checks in 2011. 

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) division head Marvin Galvez testified that the money started as a P40.65-million time deposit opened in January 2010. By March 9, 2011, the amount had matured to P41.72 million after the interest had accumulated during several rollover periods. On this day, the funds were moved to the Dutertes' joint account at BPI’s Julia Vargas branch. 

The same day, the full amount was used to buy a manager’s check, a check guaranteed by the bank and valid for six months. After that check lapsed, another for the same amount was bought on Oct. 20, 2011.

Upon questioning, Galvez confirmed that money held in a manager’s check leaves the depositor’s account but does not appear in the year-end balance. Instead, it is moved into the bank's internal settlement account, making it the bank's liability. 

Because of this, prosecutors pointed to the checks as a way of bypassing the SALN by keeping the money in limbo, given public officials are required to declare their cash on hand or in bank, among others, when they file the document by the end of each year.

Private prosecutor James Bryan Alih said the money moved this way for “three or four years.” He said a second deposit, of P55 million, was handled the same way, bringing the total to P96 million.

Galvez’s records also showed four transfers of P20 million each from the Dutertes' joint account to BPI-Philam Life on March 28, 2014, for insurance plans worth P80 million in total. 

A P16.85-million manager’s check from the same account was made out to "Samuel C. Uy" in May 2016, according to documents read out in court. 

Sen. Tito Sotto, in his interjection, compared the alleged scheme to tinikling, the folk dance in which dancers dodge clapping bamboo poles. When Sen. Bam Aquino asked if it was a "known practice" among bankers, Galvez said it was “not uncommon” for clients to return unused checks. 

Galvez said he could not tell the extent to which clients do it on purpose, but noted that purchasing managers' checks require them to state their reason for doing so in the application form.

Defense counsel Michael Poa claimed Duterte had no knowledge of the BPI joint account she had with her father and was only made aware of it during prior House hearings.

The joint account was also structured in a way that only the elder Duterte could transact alone, Poa pointed out, while Sara Duterte as co-depositor required her father's permission to move around any funds. 

Poa also noted that the BPI records presented during the trial, including the P41.7-million manager's check, bore the signature of the former president and not Sara Duterte.

2. Millions in the bank, year after year

Bank witnesses put the couple’s combined year-end balances across eight banks at the following amounts, as summarized by the prosecution:

• 2022: P59 million
• 2023: P71.3 million
• 2024: P22.2 million

On the flip side, the vice president declared zero cash on hand or in the bank for her SALNs from 2022 to 2024. 

But the defense has long sought to debunk the allegation that Duterte misdeclared her wealth by explaining that cash on hand was grouped under "others" or "other personal properties" in her SALNs. 

Based on the bank records cited by the prosecution, however, the Duterte couple's 2022 year-end balance of P59 million is more than four times the P13.325 million that was declared in “other personal properties” in the SALN that year. 

Under cross-examination, the bank witnesses said they had no personal knowledge of the accounts and testified only from records produced under subpoena. 

The Duterte couple kept at least 30 active accounts across eight banks from 2022 to 2025: LandBank, AUB, PSBank, Metrobank, Security Bank, BPI, PNB and BDO. These include accounts held jointly with other family members.

At BPI alone, Galvez counted seven active and 34 closed personal accounts, plus two credit card accounts and one corporate account.  

3. Did Security Bank flag Cale88 transactions as suspicious?

Security Bank official Leslie Cham testified that Cale88 Foods Corporation, a declared business interest of Carpio, kept two peso checking accounts with the bank. One was opened in August 2024 and the other in October 2025. Both were closed in July 2026, the month the trial began.

Cham said Cale88’s account recorded P40.14 million in inflows and P40 million in outflows in 2024, and P6.27 million in inflows in 2025. The two accounts closed with balances of P332,530.95 and P21,164.27.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian then read from suspicious transaction reports on Cale88 as provided by the Anti-Money Laundering Council: 

• There were 12 cash deposits flagged as not matching Cale88 declared financial profile
• Cale88 was flagged for failing to provide supporting documents and stopped responding to requests for clarification, so the bank could not verify where the money came from or what it was for.

Asked whether it was Security Bank that filed those reports, Cham said: “I cannot confirm.” 

Cham invoked the confidentiality clause of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and said he could not say whether suspicious transaction records were indeed filed on Cale88.

Corporate records identify Cale88 as a Davao-based banana chips exporter. But the prosecution previously raised red flags about the firm, such as its low reported electricity bills, unusual for a food factory, as well as its large inward remittances from Chinese companies. 

October 7 was the longest trial day yet, surpassing the previous record holder just two days before, which lasted around nine hours.