Lawmakers: VP Sara’s press statements can’t dispute undeclared billions

Vice President Sara Duterte’s press statements that she legally acquired her assets cannot deny government records that she had billions which she failed to the declare in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), House justice committee members said Thursday. 

Batangas Second District Representative Gerville Luistro, Manila Third District Representative Joel Chua, Representative Chel Diokno of Akbayan party-list and Representative Antonio Tinio of ACT Teachers party-list made the position after the House justice panel impeachment proceeding revealed that the Vice President did not declare any cash on hand/in bank in her SALNs from 2019 to 2024. 

The lawmakers flagged Duterte's SALNs, considering that the Anti Money Laundering Council report on her and her husband Manases Carpio’s bank transactions revealed that P6.7 billion worth of covered and suspicious transactions were recorded in the spouses’ bank accounts from 2006 to 2025. 

“Ang pakiusap sana natin sa Bise Presidente ay wag sa press release sumagot. Masyado na siyang nasasanay sa press release governance. Sana humarap na lang siya sa hearing sa April 29, kasi hindi naman sasagot ‘yung press release pag tinanong namin,” Chua said.

(The Vice President should not answer with press releases. She is getting used to press release governance. She should face the hearing on April 29, because the press release cannot answer our questions.) 

“She did not declare cash on hand and in bank, then there is this AMLC report saying P6.7 billion had been flagged by banks as 'covered and suspicious transactions' by the Vice President and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio. from 2006 to 2025. Out of that amount, the inflow is P4.425 billion, while the outflow is P1.55 billion. There’s still P2.87 billion balance. It means there is unexplained wealth there. ‘Yan po talaga ang nakakagulat,” Chua added. 

(That is really what is surprising.) 

Chua also cited that the billions worth in bank transactions involving the Vice President and her husband do not match the records of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) records showing that their business had little to no income, if not loss.

“We are giving her the chance to submit her counter evidence. She is being repeatedly called in the hearing to address the allegations as part of due process,” Chua said.

Luistro agreed with Chua that the Vice President has a lot to explain, citing that the 18 bank transactions in former senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s affidavit that match the AMLC records on covered and suspicious transactions do not even cover the entire number of bank transactions in Trillanes’ affidavit. 

It was House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Leila de Lima who randomly picked the bank transactions in the Trillanes affidavit for AMLC’s confirmation.

“I’m wondering what could have happened if we checked all the transaction in the affidavit as against AMLC records,” Luistro said in an ANC interview.

Diokno, for his part, said the Vice President’s SALN entries are clearly incomplete.

"Nakita natin na ang dami palang pumasok na pera sa kanyang mga bank accounts. Kaya ang tanong dyan, tama ba yung nilagay niya sa kanyang SALN? Dahil ngayon, ang tanong ng taong bayan, paano nangyari yun na bilyong-bilyong piso pala ang dumadaan sa kanyang account, samantalang million-million lang ang dinedeklara niya sa kanyang SALN?" Diokno said in an Unang Hirit interview.

(We saw that she has billions of pesos. The question now is, are her SALN entries correct? How can you have billions of pesos when your SALN declarations are just in millions?) 

Tinio underscored that the Vice President, as a public official, should explain the source of her billions that were not reflected in her SALNs, if not use them to settle the notice of disallowance issued by the Commission on Audit on her office's disbursement of P448 million worth of confidential funds.

"She apparently has a lot of money. She should use those to settle the disallowance," Tinio said. — BM, GMA News