Witness likens manager’s check to ‘tinikling’ to hide funds from year-end balance

MANILA, Philippines — The House prosecution panel’s final witness in Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth tagged the purchasing of a manager’s check as a form of “tinikling.”

This was because the transaction was reportedly used to skirt a specific amount of funds from the year-end balance.

The purchase was in reference to manager’s checks owned by Duterte and her father former President Rodrigo Duterte.

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The checks were sourced directly from Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) account jointly held by them way back 2016.

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READ: Duterte trial: Sammy Uy among payees in checks presented before court

During the 37th day of Duterte’s impeachment trial, the prosecution’s final witness – forensic financial analyst Atty. Alexander Cabrera – testified.

Cabrera described the vice president and her father’s purchasing of a manager’s check as “tinikling,” a traditional Filipino folk dance.

The analyst said that the Dutertes allegedly used the scheme to keep P96 million from appearing in their joint account’s year-end balance.

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He revealed that that act of purchasing manager’s checks placed that amount afloat for a maximum six months, before it eventually returned to the account.

“They did not deposit it. They waited for it to go stale so the cash returns to their account,” Cabrera explained.

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“So, the amount might be there during the year. But by the end of the year, it’s gone. The money is with the bank,” the forensic financial analyst told the impeachment court.

Cabrera also noted that manager’s checks do not have interest.

“The reason why this is unusual banking behavior is that, aside from the “Tinikling” dance, the manager’s check itself does not earn interest,” he pointed out.

“The reason I used the term “Tinikling” is that the funds do not get tied up at year-end,” the analyst told the senator-judges.

“They flow out and return, moving back and forth, yet they are consistently absent from the year-end balances,” he revealed.

The witness even referred to such a move as a “scheme,” but this was objected to by Defense counsel Atty. Kristine Ferrer. 

This was sustained by Presiding Officer and Senator-judge Francis “Chiz” Escudero as Cabrera himself did not use the word in his official reports, and, instead, used the more formal term “check kiting.”

Escudero had it stricken off record.

Ferrer also tried to object to the use of the word “tinikling,” but Escudero overruled it, as the term was already also used before by Senator-judge Vicente “Tito” Sotto.

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Escudero also noted that unlike “scheme,” “there’s nothing technically wrong with ‘tinikling’” as it was descriptive of what Cabrera wrote in his report. /apl