Carpio’s firm closed 2 bank accounts in July, impeachment court told

MANILA, Philippines — Two bank accounts belonging to a banana chips company partly owned by Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, Atty. Manases Carpio, were closed in July 2026, the same month her impeachment trial began, the Senate Impeachment Court learned on Wednesday.

During Senator-judge Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan’s questioning, prosecution witness and Security Bank Branch Banking Group Head Leslie Cham confirmed that Calle88 Foods Corp. had two peso-denominated checking accounts with the bank, both of which were closed in July 2026.

The first account, ending in 2013, was opened in August 2024 and had an ending balance of P332,530.95 in 2024 and P16,987.59 in 2025. The second account, ending in 8581, was opened in October 2025 and had an ending balance of P21,164.27 that year.

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“Both closed in July 2026,” Cham said.

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When Pangilinan asked the witness if the bank had records of monthly transactions in the company’s accounts from 2024, Cham answered in the negative.

“These are all system-generated, and I don’t look into the day-to-day transactions of it. So I was not able to have that transaction in place,” Cham explained.

Pangilinan noted that the two accounts were opened and terminated when Duterte was already vice president.

“So from 2024 to 2025 to 2026, it would be interesting to get the information as to the amounts that went in and out, considering that in the AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council) report, about P319 million went in for transactions from China,” the senator-judge said.

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“So we don’t know if that was through the peso account or if that was through the dollar account. That would be something that is worthy of looking into, honestly,” he added.

Testifying for the prosecution on Monday, AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura confirmed that Calle88 received over P319 million in funds from various Chinese companies.

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

The company appeared in the vice president’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth from 2021 to 2025.

When later pressed by Senator-judge Raffy Tulfo, the Security Bank official confirmed that Calle88’s first account had total incoming and outgoing funds of P40,138,766.28 and P40,001,101.79, respectively.

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“In 2025, the amount that came in was P6,265,915.66,” the witness added. /mcm