Senate probes accounts of Duterte-linked firms
October 7, 2026 | 9:44 pm SENATOR-JUDGES on Wednesday scrutinized bank transactions involving two companies linked to Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio and her husband as the impeachment court continued...
October 7, 2026 | 9:44 pm SENATOR-JUDGES on Wednesday scrutinized bank transactions involving two companies linked to Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio and her husband as the impeachment court continued examining discrepancies in the country’s second-highest official’s declared wealth.
Private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim A. Alih presented executives from several banks who testified that Ms. Duterte and her husband, Manases R.
Carpio, maintained more than 30 accounts across eight banks from 2022 to 2025. Mr. Alih said the accounts had combined year-end balances of P59 million in 2022, P71 million in 2023, P22 million in 2024 and P35 million in 2025.
Senator-judges also questioned bank officials about the balances and transactions of Cale88 Food Corp., where Mr. Carpio was a shareholder, and GenCorp Industries, Inc. Ms.
Duterte declared GenCorp among her business interests in her 2025 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. GenCorp maintained eight accounts with the bank, all of which remain active, Leslie Y. Cham, branch banking group head at Security Bank Corp., told the impeachment court.
Mr. Cham said GenCorp opened its eight Security Bank accounts between October 2020 and November 2025, including two in March 2021. At Senator-Judge Pancratius N.
Pangilinan ’s request, Mr. Cham disclosed the year-end balances of each account from 2022 to 2025, with amounts ranging from P18,656 to P15.66 million. Mr.
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Cham said Cale88 also maintained two checking accounts with Security Bank. One was opened in August 2024 and the other in October 2025, but both were closed in July 2026. “It would be interesting to know the bank transactions undertaken by Cale88 in 2024 and 2025 because the Vice-President was already [in office] when the accounts were opened,” Mr.
Pangilinan told the court. The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report showed about P319 million in transactions from China, he pointed out. “We don’t know if that was through the peso account or if that was through the dollar account, of course,” he added.
Clarifying figures in a forensic audit report, Mr. Cham said Security Bank’s records showed P40.14 million flowing into and P40.001 million flowing out of one Cale88 account in 2024. The account received another P6.27 million in 2025, he said.
AMLC Executive Director Ronel U. Buenaventura earlier testified that Cale88 transactions had been flagged as suspicious because they lacked an apparent legal or trade obligation, purpose or economic justification. Mr.
Cham said Security Bank requires clients to provide proof of the source of payments and supporting documents for bigger transactions. The bank returns the money if these requirements are not met, he added. Senator-Judge Paolo Benigno A.
Aquino IV said the AMLC testimony appeared to show that money without supporting documents had nevertheless entered Cale88 accounts. Mr. Cham said he could not determine what happened without reviewing the transactions and declined to speculate whether the money had been returned or held by the bank.
Cale88 also maintains an active account with Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), prosecution witness Marwin L. Galvez, division head for BPI’s Central Manila branches, testified. GenCorp does not have an account with BPI, he added.
Mr. Galvez declined to disclose the account’s ending balance when questioned by Mr. Pangilinan.
“The information we have is that P319 million entered [Cale88], and we want to know where it went,” Mr. Pangilinan said. “The information we received from the AMLC yesterday showed P1.25 billion in inflows to Cale88.
We want to know how much went through BPI and what these transactions were.” Presiding Officer and Senator-Judge Francis G. Escudero said the court could recall the witness later. — Francessca S.
Abalos
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