Buenaventura: AMLC didn't rectify records submitted to impeachment court

Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura on Tuesday said there were no rectifications made to the records they already submitted to the Senate impeachment court.

Buenaventura, a witness presented by the House prosecution panel, said this on the 34th day of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

“Your Honor, we did not rectify the records that we submitted. The records, when we were subpoenaed here, have already been corrected based on our validation,” he said.

“So, it was not rectified because there was nothing at the time that we submitted our records, submitted before the House. When we were subpoenaed, these were the records standing in our database. Now, there was a request. We validated that,” he added.

During Monday’s trial, Buenaventura said P4.4 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions were recorded under the bank accounts of the Vice President and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio.

But this was far from what the AMLC presented during the April 22 hearing, wherein transactions totaling P6.7 billion—classified as covered and suspicious—were recorded under the couple’s names.

The camp of Carpio earlier said that the reported P2 billion total inflow into his bank for two decades, as reported before the House Committee on Justice's impeachment hearing, should only be P2 million.

Carpio’s camp said "a systems glitch" at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) supposedly caused the discrepancy.

According to Buenaventura, when the BPI made the request to rectify, the AMLC still had to make a validation.

“So at that time, the records stood as it was because we have not yet validated. They simply sent a letter. When we submitted to this Honorable Court for transparency, Your Honor, it is already what is already as corrected based on the request because we have validated that,” he explained.

“So we never rectified anything because there was no error in the first place when we submitted before the House, and at this point because it's the covered person which made that request. And as of the time, we haven't yet validated that,” he continued.

In a statement in May, BPI said, “As a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)-supervised institution, Bank of the Philippine Islands adheres strictly to all applicable laws and regulations, including those governing bank secrecy, data privacy, and consumer protection."

BPI also said it “complies with required reporting and regulatory engagements through the proper authorities, and provides relevant clarifications when necessary.” — RSJ, GMA News

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