by Diego Morra
The Chinese Embassy may protest to high heavens that the P150-million it “donated” to a foundation headed by Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio was meant to “help” build classrooms in Davao City but the Chinese corporations in Hong Kong and Southern China will be hard put proving that they were just buying banana chips from Cale 88, which appears to a small enterprise with a work force that is not even a dozen but scored a huge windfall of P1.25-billion from 2022 to 2025. This cannot be consistent with a business that paid an annual income tax that is a tad higher than P10,000. Moreover, Manases Carpio mysteriously disappeared as a stockholder with 47% equity when Sara was investigated and impeached. It turned out that another company also owned by the Dutertes “bought” Carpio’s interest.
Surely, Cale88 Foods could not have shipped boatloads of banana chips to China with the few workers that it had. Most likely, and this is assuming that Cale88 Foods were a legitimate food manufacturer, the venture could have bought huge volumes of banana chips from other companies in Tagum, Panabo (where prison labor can be exploited to the hilt) and other areas still free from the ravages of fusarium wilt, particularly Tropical Race 4, and sent them to China. Stranger still, Philippine bananas had to go through the eye of a needle to enter the China market. China now produces bananas after claiming for years that Philippine bananas harbor pests.
Even then, the documents showed that the total sales of Cale88 were only P208-million but inward remittances were P319.33-million. Curiously, the revenues were not reflected in the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of Sara and her husband from 2019 to 2025. They had no cash on hand and cash in banks despite the fact that their transactions from 2009 to 2013 amounted to P2.7 billion, or between 70% and 80% of the total P3.3 billion flagged for that period. Sara became a public official only on 2010 and got married to Carpio in 2007. From where did she accumulate such enormous wealth?
On this basis alone, one could surmise that the Duterte political warlord family amassed their huge stash since the 1980s, when Rodrigo Duterte entered politics and emerged as the warlord of Davao City. But why are state-owned companies buying banana chips from Carpio rather than the thousands of family enterprises engaged in the same business? This question was raised at the Senate and the logical justification was that the Chinese were also into some hanky-panky, “buying” access and “cooperation” with Sara and Carpio. Before Sara broke with her Team Unity partners in 2023, the Chinese Embassy was cocksure that she was a shoo-in for the presidency in 2028. Yet, political conditions in the Philippines defy categorization by Confucius or Sun Tzu, and the more they believed in the theory of Sara’s invincibility, the more the Chinese would invest in the Duterte dynasty.
Nevertheless, the Chinese, who invented the word patience, could not purchase wisdom, and they failed to understand the calculus of chaos that underpins botched ambitions and tactical alliances among members of the political class. The linear thinking exhibited by the Chinese mission and the coterie of pro-China propagandists is their own folly. No one would wish to be drawn, quartered and their remains stuck in some pikes to champion the Duterte dynasty’s interest. Neither would anyone suffer lingzhi to protect Sara, Manases, Pulong, Baste, Kitty and, of course, the patriarch now awaiting trial before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Witnesses testified on Oct. 6, 2026 that Sara and her beloved husband have 30 active accounts in eight banks, surely an indication that they trust the banking system, and Sara also has joint accounts with her father Rodrigo, with P193.7-million flitting from one account to another as the crow flies in 2014. There were seven inter-account transfers on March 28, 2014, involved the Duterte father and daughter. The transfers, each bearing a separate reference number, totaled P193.7 million. The largest was P55.13 million, followed by P41.72 million, four P20-million transfers and P16.85 million. Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) executive director Atty. Ronel Buenaventura said these were movements of funds from one account to another within the same bank and were treated separately because they had different reference numbers.
The defense objected to the P193.70-million total but presiding officer Chiz Escudero junked it, arguing that Buenaventura had already testified that the transactions were unique. Sara and hubby, according to prosecutors, had an undeclared stash of P190-million. In 2022, the yearend balance was P59- million, rising to P71-million the following year and falling to P22-million in 2024 before rising to P35-million last year. Land Bank Davao R. Magsaysay Branch Manager Racquel de la Cerna said that Sara closed two accounts in their branch, while Carpio’s lone account remains active with a balance of P1.358 million as of 2025. The prosecution will present 11 other bank executives and seven insurance company representatives to hash out Sara’s undeclared wealth.
The confirmation by the AMLC that Manases profited from inward remittances from China and Hong Kong and Sara was provided with P150-million to build 13 classrooms in Davao City has raised hackles among defense and national security officials. The National Security Council said it will look into potential national security implications of millions of pesos remitted from China to Cale88 Foods. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. also said that the reported financial flows posed serious national security implications. Thus, the impeachment trial has become internationalized, with China vulnerable to being accused of meddling in the country’s internal affairs through the banana chips operations. Who knows? The money might have ended in the pockets of Duterte trolls and keyboard warriors who also share the loot of the gid economy by moonlighting as propagandists for China’s sovereignty over maritime features with the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines.#
