All subpoenaed bank institutions and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) have formally complied and submitted documents related to Vice President Sara Duterte’s financial records to the Senate impeachment court on Thursday.
According to Senate Secretary and Impeachment Clerk of Court Renato Bantug’s message early Thursday, the banks were assigned ‘specific time slots within the day for a more orderly reception of the documents.’
The concerned banks were ordered to submit to the Clerk of Court the requested peso-denominated financial records of Duterte, her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, and companies allegedly linked to the couple
The AMLC, meanwhile, was directed to submit its records to the impeachment court for private review before any turnover to the prosecution and defense teams.
Reporters saw several unmarked boxes being brought into the Senate premises early Thursday, but the people accompanying them declined to confirm whether the boxes contained documents from the subpoenaed banks.
One person wearing a PSBank I.D. lace was also seen entering the Senate but declined the media’s invitation for an interview. PSBank or Philippine Savings Bank is among the subpoenaed banks together with Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank), Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI), Security Bank Corp. (Security Bank), LandBank of the Philippines (Landbank), and BDO Unibank (BDO).
According to Bantug’s office, as of 12 noon., they have received compliance from BDO, PSBank, Metrobank, and Security Bank.
As of 4 p.m., BPI, LandBank, and the AMLC also submitted their documents, the Senate Impeachment Court confirmed.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) likewise complied with a separate subpoena for Duterte’s tax records after securing approval from the President.
In an ambush interview with Bantug, he said that some of these banks also requested an additional period of 10 days to fully comply with the documents requested in the subpoena.
‘They gave reasons but it’s not for me to decide but I accepted what they were ready to submit this morning,’ Bantug said.
The Office of the Clerk of Court will next conduct an inventory of the submitted records before releasing them to the parties.
In a statement, the impeachment court also said it will not disclose the amounts, specific contents, or other substantive details of the records while the inventory and submission process of the other historical documents that needed additional processing time remain ongoing.
The subpoena stemmed from the House prosecution’s bid to obtain financial records that it said would support its allegation of unexplained wealth against Duterte.
Impeachment court serves subpoenas for Sara Duterte’s financial recordsOver the objections of the defense, the impeachment court, in separate rulings issued on July 20, granted the prosecution’s requests for Duterte’s financial records, including those covering the years 2007 to 2021, when Duterte served as Davao City vice mayor and mayor.
The impeachment court emphasized, however, that the records’ admissibility as evidence remains subject to the court’s rules.
The court said the records predating Duterte’s position as vice president may be used to establish a financial baseline in determining whether assets accumulated during Duterte’s tenure in the country’s second highest post were disproportionate to her lawful income.
They may not, however, be used to introduce new impeachable offenses allegedly committed before she assumed an impeachable office.
The subpoena also excluded foreign-currency deposits and the financial records of JTC Group of Companies Philippines Inc. and Pikimong Pikimong Philippines Corp., with the court saying prosecutors failed to sufficiently establish the companies’ links to Duterte or Carpio