THE Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on Wednesday said they discovered more than P6 billion in combined bank transactions in the last 20 years for Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, none of which were reflected in her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
The transactions were documented in covered transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports from 2006 to 2026, which have all been transmitted to the House Committee on Justice, said AMLC Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura, during the panel’s hearing on impeachment complaints against the vice president.
Covered transactions are transactions in cash or other equivalent monetary instrument involving a total amount in excess of P500,000 within one banking day.
Suspicious transactions, on the other hand, are those, regardless of the amounts involved, where there is no underlying legal or trade obligation, purpose or economic justification; the client is not properly identified; the amount involved is not commensurate with the business or financial capacity of the client; is perceived that the client’s transaction is structured to avoid being the subject of reporting requirements; any circumstance relating to the transaction which is observed to deviate from the profile of the client or the client’s past transactions; or transactions that are in any way related to an unlawful activity or offense.
“Yes, there are suspicious transactions and covered transactions in our system, database or record,” Buenaventura told the committee.
Buenaventura said the council has identified 313 covered transactions and 17 suspicious transactions in Duterte’s accounts, and 317 covered transactions and 16 suspicious transactions in those of her husband.
The transactions totaled P6.77 billion, broken down into P3.77 billion linked to Duterte’s accounts and P2.99 billion to Carpio’s.
It also identified P791.1 million in transactions that could not be determined based on available records.
Buenaventura said the records showed an inflow of P1.83 billion into Duterte’s accounts and P2.59 billion into Carpio’s, equivalent to P4.43 billion in total deposits.
On the outflow side, he said that P1.21 billion was withdrawn from Duterte’s accounts and P343.32 million from Carpio’s accounts.
Buenaventura said his agency found a marked increase in the historical trend of Duterte’s bank transactions, which surged from P540,000 in 2005, to P208.15 million in 2007. That was the year she was first elected vice mayor of Davao City, while her father, the former president, was mayor.
The bulk of the transactions involved credit memos amounting to P1.41 billion, debit memos at P1.03 billion and fund transfers totaling P521.86 million, followed by time deposit preterminations of P218.74 million and miscellaneous transactions of P209.29 million.
Other transactions identified included time deposit placements and payments amounting to P109.15 million each, withdrawals totaling P62.79 million and check deposits worth P48.33 million.
Panel member and Manila Rep. Joel Chua said the bank transactions were not reflected in the vice president’s SALNs.
Bicol Saro Partylist Rep. Terry Ridon also noted that there was a “significant gap” in her financial activity and her declared personal assets after reviewing the yearly transaction figures alongside Duterte’s net worth in her SALNs,
In earlier testimony, the Office of the Ombudsman confirmed that Duterte declared no cash on hand or bank deposits for six consecutive years from 2019 to 2024, even as her net worth rose more than 10 times to P88.4 million in 2024 from only P7 million in 2007.
Akbayan Rep. Jose Manuel Diokno said Duterte should explain the discrepancy between the AMLC report and her SALNs.
“For me, it is a smoking gun in at least insofar as probable cause is concerned,” Diokno told reporters.
ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. Antonio Tinio, meanwhile, said these figures from the AMLC should be “reconciled with the vice president’s SALNs and with lawful sources of income. The public deserves clear explanations, supported by documents — not vague assurances.”
Meanwhile, in his affidavit, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV alleged that the Duterte family received P188 million from alleged drug lord Samuel Uy.
In her opening remarks, House Justice Committee chairman and Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said her panel is the “proper forum” for Vice President Duterte to answer the allegations against her as she did not show up again in her impeachment hearing on Wednesday.
In her opening statement, Luistro railed against Duterte’s statement that criticized the committee’s examination on her academic records revealed by Ramil Madriaga instead of discussing her confidential funds and transactions.
However, Luistro said that among the hundreds of pieces of evidence presented during the hearings, only one was targeted.
“The truth is, we are being ghosted and gaslighted. The most important question is where is the money, but the answer that we received was about college grades. And the worst part? This explanation was not being made here, but everywhere else,” Luistro said in Filipino, referring to Duterte’s reaction to testimony that she did not do well in school.
Luistro said her committee will evaluate everything, including the testimony of Duterte’s alleged bagman, Ramil Madriaga, documents from the Commission on Audit, National Bureau of Investigation findings and certifications from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
“Everything that needs to be faced should be scrutinized and investigated, and those persons who should face questions should take their oath and explain before the committee, because this is the proper forum,” Luistro said.
“If there is anything to clarify, the best — and the only — place to do that is here, before this committee, under oath and on record,” she added.
She said that their investigation has entered the part where the numbers have to be studied, compared and analyzed.
“And numbers, unlike people, do not have motives. Numbers do not lie,” Luistro said.
RED MENDOZA
