Philippine senator-judges on Wednesday scrutinized bank transactions involving two companies linked to Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio and her husband, as the impeachment court pressed on with its examination of discrepancies in the declared wealth of the country's second-highest official. Under the Philippine Constitution, the Senate convenes as an impeachment court to try impeachable officials, including the Vice-President, with senators sitting as judges and a conviction carrying removal from office.

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.

According to Mr. Alih, the accounts carried combined year-end balances of P59 million in 2022, P71 million in 2023, P22 million in 2024, and P35 million in 2025.

The court also questioned bank officials about the balances and transactions of Cale88 Food Corp., in which Mr. Carpio was a shareholder, and GenCorp Industries, Inc., which Ms. Duterte listed among her business interests in her 2025 statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth. Such filings are mandatory annual disclosures for Philippine public officials, and the tribunal has been weighing declared interests against the account activity described in testimony.

Security Bank testimony

Leslie. Cham, branch banking group head at Security Bank Corp., told the impeachment court that GenCorp maintained eight accounts with the bank, all of which remain active. He said the accounts were opened between October 2020 and November 2025, including two in March 2021.

At the request of Senator-Judge Pancratius N. Pangilinan, 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. Cham added that Cale88 also held two checking accounts with Security Bank, one opened in August 2024 and the other in October 2025, both of which 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.

He noted that an Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report showed about P319 million in transactions from China. “We don't know if that was through the peso account or if that was through the dollar account, of course,” he said.

The AMLC is the country's financial intelligence and investigation authority, tasked with reviewing transactions reported by banks and other covered institutions under the anti-money-laundering framework.

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.

Questions over documentation

Mr. Cham said Security Bank requires clients to provide proof of the source of payments and supporting documents for larger transactions, and that the bank returns the money if these requirements are not met. Source-of-funds checks of this kind are a standard anti-money-laundering safeguard in Philippine banking, where institutions are obliged to verify the legitimacy of large transactions and report those that cannot be justified.

Senator-Judge Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV said the AMLC testimony appeared to show that money without supporting documents had nevertheless entered Cale88's accounts. Mr. Cham said he could not determine what happened without reviewing the transactions and declined to speculate on whether the money had been returned or was being held by the bank.

BPI account details

Prosecution witness Marwin L. Galvez, division head for the Central Manila branches of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), testified that Cale88 also maintains an active account with BPI, while GenCorp does not have an account with the bank. 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, leaving open further testimony on how the reported inflows moved through the two companies' accounts.

— Francessca S. Abalos