ANTI-MONEY Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura told the House Justice Committee on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, that Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband Mans Carpio made bank transactions in the amount of P6.77 billion in 20 years. The AMLC disclosure stacks another pile of dung at the committee, which is hearing an impeachment complaint against Duterte.
Last week, all-around Duterte aide Ramil Madriaga testified to debunk earlier claims that P125 million in confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President were spent in 11 days in December 2025. He said this amount was dissipated in less than 24 hours. He also admitted to having personally delivered large amounts of money to several individuals — including key officials of the Ombudsman’s Office — in what appears to be a pattern of shady deals involving bribery and corruption.
The movement of funds presented by AMLC may not unmask how the account holders amassed ill-gotten wealth. But juxtaposed with other records presented before that committee, the least of all possible offenses that can be charged against Duterte is dishonesty. The present Ombudsman — Jesus Crispin Remulla — presented her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) that show zero amounts of “cash in hand” or “cash in bank” for six successive years, from 2019 to 2025. Even if she moved funds at the closing dates of those years — like what happened to her confidential funds — just to make it appear that her bank accounts were flat, the intent to commit fraud is still obvious.
And then there is also former senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s testimony alleging that chunks of the Duterte bank deposits (this includes those of Sara’s siblings) came from drug lords. The hologram that emerges is not only the summation of all possible criminal acts that can be committed by a government official, but there is also a network of mafia-like gangs being brought in to buttress a sordid version of public-private partnerships.
The start of the 20-year period from 2006 to 2026 during which time the AMLC has made it of record that the Duterte-Carpio couple completed 39 suspicious transactions, and at the same time making the nepo babies envious of their openly joining the elite multibillionaire’s club, coincided her foray into big-time politics. In 2006, she was elected vice mayor of Davao City. Her father, Rodrigo Duterte — now a detainee at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, and charged for crimes against humanity — was the mayor. The top post of the city exchanged hands exclusively between the father-daughter team since then.
The bank transactions flagged by AMLC peaked in 2009, amounting to P705 million. The following year, in 2010 — when she became mayor for the first time — the transactions amounted to P650.
Six billion in 20 years means bank transactions averaged at P300 million a year, P25 million a month, or, assuming Sunday as a rest day, P1 million a day. The contrast is imposing when there are 26 million Filipinos who live on less than P100 a day, according to unofficial data.
Sara’s career path is obviously not for everyone. But for government wage earners who wish to get ahead in life, here are the takeaways:
First, dishonesty pays. Don’t let the SALN keep you from being creative. All laws must be followed, for show.
Second, keep an eye on where you can take undue advantage over systems and the competition. Connections, especially with close relatives, are to be leveraged and exploited.
Deception requires skill. Hone that skill and the world is yours. She knows she was teaming up with a drug addict (if for a moment we can believe what she says), yet she helped deceive the voters by endorsing him. The deception has been compounded by the fact that the drug addict is a tax evader.
We have a tax evader and a plunderer — a gangster — who run the government.
Sara continues to lead preelection surveys for president in 2028. When the day comes that she becomes the president, we will have three successive administrations that lived by dishonesty, lawbreaking and deception.
Some individuals may prosper like she did, but the rest of us, the majority, will continue to flounder.
haberia@gmail.com
