Duterte trial: Underreporting finances is wealth concealment – witness

MANILA, Philippines — Forensic financial analyst Atty. Alexander Cabrera told the Senate Impeachment Court on Monday that Vice President Sara Duterte’s underdeclaration in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) and questionable business financial statements indicated deliberate concealment of wealth.

Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros asked Cabrera if there were signs of deliberate concealment of wealth after he reported that Duterte and her spouse, lawyer Manases Carpio, supposedly had unexplained wealth worth P817 million.

“I will just use the percentage of underdeclaration or underreporting [in the SALN] because that is what makes it manifestly disproportionate [to their lawful income],” Cabrera said.

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“Then there are companies with unreliable financial statements, high profits and low capital, yet losses on the bottom line. These are telltale signs of fraudulent reporting,” he added.

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

According to Cabrera’s review of Duterte and Carpio’s financial records, the couple had P142.2 million in undeclared income from Cale 88 Foods Corp. and Metro Chow King Food Corp., and P212.63 million in undeclared income from Gencorp Industries Inc. from 2022 to 2025.

Asked by Hontiveros what would be considered unexplained wealth, Cabrera explained that it involves the “deliberate concealment” of property that the law considers unexplained.

“There are many Supreme Court decisions that I also read before doing this work. I see that it is not the fact that the property was not declared, not that fact per se, but the deliberate concealment of the property,” Cabrera said.

“You might think it is difficult because it involves the state of mind, right? Whether it was deliberate or not. But the answer is in the law itself: Is it manifestly disproportionate? Because if it is manifestly disproportionate, there is no longer any discussion of intent … and this happens year after year,” he added. /mcm