Sara Duterte impeachment trial Day 34: Discrepancies in SALN, bank transactions

Senate impeachment court presiding officer Francis Escudero said on the 34th day of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte that the total net worth of Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio, as stated in their joint Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) from 2007 to 2025 does not match the amount of their bank transactions.

Escudero made the observation based on the testimony of Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura.

“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 to their 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. 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 ganitong kalaking halaga,” he said.

“The P4.4 billion covering the period 2007 to 2025, we tried to add all of the amounts in the combined SALNs for the covered period of 2007 to 2025. It totaled only P840 million. You would need five times at least five times the combined SALN total from 2007 to 2025 to be able to explain the huge amount of P4.4 billion in transactions,” he added.

Before Escudero made the observation, the AMLC official said that Cale88 Foods Corporation, one of the business interests of Carpio, recorded over P1.2 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions from 2022 to 2025.

The AMLC official also said that the P1.2 billion figure includes the P319 million remittances to Cale88 from China.

Buenaventura also said there were no rectifications made to the records they already submitted to the Senate impeachment court because BPI’s request for correction back in April, reducing the covered and suspicious bank transactions under Carpio’s name from P2 billion to P2 million, was not taken by the AMLC as gospel truth.

“It was not rectified because there was nothing at the time that we submitted our records, submitted before the House. When we were subpoenaed, these were the records standing in our database. Now, there was a request. We validated that,” Buenaventura said.

Senator-judge Vicente “Tito” Sotto III was also not convinced that the glitch reported by the BPI, which prompted the request for correction to the AMLC, indeed happened.

“Ang tagal-tagal na panahon na meron akong account sa bangko. Ni minsan, hindi ako nakaranas nun, o may kakilala man lang na naging bilyon [ang pera] dahil sa bank system glitch. Nangyayari ba talaga ito na P2 billion naging P2 million?” Sotto said.

Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros said Chinese firms “advancing the interests of the Chinese Communist Party” were behind the P319 million inward remittances to Cale88.

She said these include China National Township Enterprises and Beijing Zhenweifang Food Company, supposedly owned by the Xinjiang Fruit Industry Group, as stated in the company’s own materials.

Senator Robin Padilla, meanwhile, denied receiving money from China even as he admitted that he is affiliated with Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines.

It was former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who said that Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines, which named the Vice President as one of its incorporators, received P150 million from China.

"Sana po masabi lang doon sa ating mga kasama na, tutal hindi naman nabanggit dito 'yung sa Tapang at Malasakit, hinihingi ko po na 'wag naman kaming madamay lahat. Kasi kasama kami diyan eh. Hindi naman po 'yan nabanggit dito sa korte. Binanggit 'yan ni former senator Trillanes na hindi sa korteng ito," Padilla said.

(I hope the parties realize that since the Tapang at Malasakit was not initially mentioned here in the trial, I ask that we not all be implicated. Because we are part of that alliance. It wasn't brought up here in the trial. It was former senator Trillanes who mentioned it, but not in this court.)

Senator-Judge Panfilo “Ping” Lacson also said that the legislative intent of the provision on the prohibitions against political harassment under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) is solely meant for the election period.

“I was here in 2001 when we passed [Republic Act] 9160. This amendment was introduced by the late senator Nene Pimentel, because at that time, we were in the opposition. So ang intent nito, doon lang sa election period na hindi mako-cover ng batas lahat ng kandidato,” he said.

(The intent of this was only for the election period when the law cannot cover all candidates.

Before the day ended, Escudero ruled that the bank records of the Vice President and her husband, as submitted by the banks to the court, enjoy a presumption of regularity.

Escudero made the ruling since the defense team of the Vice President refused to stipulate, or agree, that the bank records are authentic, prompting the prosecution to present the bank officials to confirm the authenticity as well as the balance of the accounts under the names of the Vice President and her husband.

“To the extent that any record independently qualifies as an official record and is entitled to a presumption of regularity, that presumption is rebuttable and does not establish the truth or accuracy of every entry,” he said.

Escudero said that this is in accordance with Rule 4, Section 1 of the Rules on Evidence, which regards an electronic document as equivalent to an original under the original document rule when it is a printout of other or other output readable by sight or other means and shown to reflect the data accurately.

Side comments

Ahead of Escudero's remark, defense counsel Mark Vinluan apologized to the senator-judges over his cross-examination that dwelled on the punitive provisions of the AMLA for those who will violate the confidentiality clause. The Senate court ruled that impeachment proceedings are not covered by such confidentiality.

"We just want to test the credibility of the witness. It is never our intention to cause intimidation to the members of the Honorable impeachment court. I personally apologize and I can commit to be more circumspect moving forward," Vinluan added.

House prosecutor Terry Ridon of Bicol Saro Party-list said that the direct examination of Buenaventura took six hours on Monday due to numerous objections by the defense.

Ridon was responding to defense counsel Sheila Sison’s manifestation before the Senate impeachment court that they should not be rushed in conducting their cross-examination on Monday, October 5. —GMA News