by Diego Morra
Lawyer Alexander “Alex” Cabrera, whom the Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio defense panel wanted to be banned from the witness stand of the Senate impeachment court, delivered what amounts to a coup de grace, delivering a forensic financial analysis that shot down the daily pablum of the defense that the mountain of evidence culled by the prosecution was fabricated, including the ones admitted by the defense and never controverted in the course of the trial.
Cabrera, a certified public accountant (CPA) from the Philippine School of Business Administration (PSBA) who later took his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), undertook a systematic assessment of the tax filings, Statements of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs), corporate documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), documents from the Anti-Money laundering Council (AMLC) and 30 bank accounts in eight banks, including joint accounts with the detained ex—president Rodrigo Duterte and Sara’s joint accounts with her husband, Manases Carpio.
Despite being notified by the prosecution that it would present Cabrera, the defense still objected, arguing that the forensic was not supposed to take the stand that day. The trial court brushed aside the defense’s protest. At the outset, the Sara lawyers may have known the record of Cabrera, former chairman of a big accounting firm and who had analyzed thousands of corporate records, tax filings and passed judgment on dubious documents covering inward remittances, contested checks and financial statements in 37 years. He certainly was known to Sara since she signed an agreement with Cabrera’s company to assess the Davao City Investment Code. This was probably the reason why the defense got goosebumps upon learning that Cabrera going to present his forensic analysis.
The defense ended up less than “maisug” when Cabrera took the witness stand. As a lawyer, he was bound by the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA) with its 37 Canons, as an accountant, he was bound by the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants in the Philippines (CEPAP) and international standards. Most of all, he was bound by the rules and regulations of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. All told, Cabrera was answerable to two professional organizations and his fraternity and the people at large who have been monitoring the conduct of the impeachment trial and weighing the evidence proffered to convict Sara. His role was to show vividly why Sara is being made to answer allegations of ill-gotten wealth.
Given the mishmash of weak defenses advanced by the 16 defense lawyers, from the illegal disbursements of “confidential funds” that Sara sourced from the Contingent Fund of the Palace, for which she was accountable, as argued by former Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, it was inevitable that Cabrera would find the rot in the paper trail, in the bundles of documents he had examined, the financial statements he had assessed, and the discrepancies in tax filings, SALNs and bank papers from 2007 to 2025.
Sara did not prepare to be confronted by an expert witness like Alex Cabrera and neither did she believe that she would be slapped with impeachment charges after throwing the kitchen sink at President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. All along, Sara and her handlers, perhaps with foreign advisers in tow, never for a moment thought that a weak leader would make launch a counteroffensive rather than throw in the towel. Call it megalothymia, or the idea that she is superior to the rest of mankind, that provided her with the delusion that she is immune from suit, from imperchment and from being kicked out from her perch. This megalothymia is the reason why she thinks appearing before the Senate impeachment court is beneath her dignity.
So, Alex Cabrera ruled the day. He discovered assets that were never included in Sara’s SALNs, saw the tax returns (ITRs) that did not include the money that flowed through her gravy train. Upon questioning by Rep. Chel Diokno, Cabrera stressed that the financial lacunae would eventually be filled up by comparing data, rechecking bank accounts, the P96-million in manager’s checks that secreted away the money in the joint Sara-Digong accounts, and corporate earnings hidden in Cale88 Foods, Metro City and GenCorp. For 2022, Cabrera said there was ₱60.21 million in undeclared cash, ₱80.70 million the following year, ₱23.17 million in 2024 and ₱43.61 million in 2025. Cabrera also stumbled on insurance policies, investments, personal properties and other assets that were missing from the declarations.
For 2022, Cabrera showed Sara had ₱190.63 million in allegedly undeclared assets and income, ₱167.34 million the following year and for 2024, ₱264.22 million. For 2025, ₱195.69 million was amassed. The undeclared assets and income of Sara Duterte and her husband from 2022 to 2025 amounted to ₱817,874,867. Cabrera admitted the accounting methodology he adopted in making the forensic analysis might still be conservative, in which case the hidden money and assets might be far bigger. After the Cabrera presentation and Diokno’s questioning, the Sara camp was dumfounded to learn that they will be up against figures and retrieved and analyzed documents. Sara bragged that is prepared to debunk Cabrera’s investigation. Will she sit on the griller to explain away her ill-gotten wealth? Don’t bet on it. She hates chairs, witness stands and the impeachment court itself.#
