by Diego Morra
The defense lawyers of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio appear to be having the worst time seeking to prevent lawyer Ronel Buenaventura, the executive director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), from confirming the foreign currency deposits of the impeached vice president and her husband, Atty. Manases Carpio. Objecting to Buenaventura’s testimony, Sara’s lawyers invoked the confidentiality of dollar accounts under Republic Act No. 6426 (RA 6426), or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act (FCDA), arguing that AMLC cannot disclose any such information during the impeachment trial.
Presiding officer Chiz Escudero nixed the argument, explaining that confidentiality provision RA 6426 wilts when read within the context of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), which compels banks to submit covered transaction reports (CTRs) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs) to the AMLC. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas regulations likewise torpedoed the defense argument as the absolute confidentiality of foreign-currency deposits is irrelevant to institutions that report such deposits to the AMLC through CTRs and STRs.
“The witness is simply being asked to testify on records and financial information that are already in his lawful possession through reports submitted by covered institutions to his office,” Escudero said. Since the pieces information have already been reported to the AMLC, they are bound to be disclosed to the impeachment court. He cited the fact that during the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona, then-Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales testified on information from an AMLC report involving Corona’s foreign-currency accounts.
Carping by the defense amounted to nothing as the AMLC data had been affirmed and reaffirmed by witnesses during the hearings of the justice panel of the House of Representatives, with Sara herself admitting the existence of her bank accounts, those of her husband and the joint accounts with her father. The impeachment court junked the objection and heard Buenaventura’s testimony, with Sara’s lawyers hoovering up the information that they failed to kill, giving the prosecution the chance to prove its case about the inexplicable wealth of Sara, and the millions she enjoyed even before her marriage to Carpio.
All told, Buenaventura said, the 666 CTRs and 55 STRs of Sara and her hubby from 2007 to 2025 were worth P4.4-billion. Among the STRs revealed during the trial were premium payments made to The Mercantile Insurance Co. on July 4, 2019, and Nov. 15, 2019. “Based on records, as reported by the covered person, the reason indicated is graft and corrupt practices,” Buenaventura said. “Several news outlets recently released a list of individuals and corporations identified as being involved in the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) flood control issue, prompting the filing of an STR.”
Meanwhile, another STR, dated Aug. 1, 2024, linked Duterte’s husband, Mans Carpio, to drug trafficking, particularly Philippine Savings Bank (PSB) accounts under his name, which were flagged following criminal complaints tied to a 2017 P6.4-billion shabu smuggling case. Carpio maintained two accounts at PSB, one is a peso account and the other a dollar account. “Both accounts were still active, with average daily balances for the past six months amounting to P519,787.44 and $6,411.05, respectively,” the narrative read.
Another STR, dated Dec. 5, 2024, also flagged transactions Sara allegedly committed for malversation of public funds and property. “The client is alleged to have misappropriated confidential funds to her office,” Buenaventura said. The STR narrative also cited COA’s disallowance of P73 million in confidential funds in 2022 under Duterte’s office. AMLC records also confirmed the joint accounts of Sara and her father Rodrigo Duterte at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), from which $221,322.76—or ₱9,109,644.80—was withdrawn over the counter on April 8, 2013. The ₱9.1-million- withdrawal is party of the many AMLC records involving Sara and her husband. The AMLC summary contained 373 CTRs involving Sara. Another 363 CTRs involved Carpio.
Aside from the AMLC reports, Sara and her husband also received cash from the Chinese Embassy and Chinese corporations, with the foundation led by Sara getting P150-million from the embassy and Carpio’s Cele88 banana chip manufacturing operation receiving a total of P319 million from Chinese companies. Curiously, Carpio’s name disappeared from Cele88’s corporate reports last year as the impeachment case against Sara gained momentum. The aggregated sales of Cele88 for five years amounted to only P208-million but the company received P319-million from Chinese companies. The mysterious discrepancy cannot be brushed aside even as Sara and Carpio, along with the Chinese Embassy, maintained that the latest disclosures of former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV were “fabricated” and meant to “smear the good name of China.” #
