On the 35th day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial Wednesday, representatives of multiple banks testified on the financial records of Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, as the prosecution continued presenting evidence on alleged unexplained wealth.
Witnesses from Asia United Bank, Philippine Savings Bank, Metrobank, Security Bank, BPI, PNB, and BDO were called, covering at least 30 bank accounts across eight banks whose combined ending balances the prosecution claims exceeded P190 million not declared in Duterte’s SALN.
A notable development surfaced when Senator-judge Francis Pangilinan’s questioning of Security Bank Branch Banking Group Head Leslie Cham revealed that two peso-denominated checking accounts belonging to Calle88 Foods Corp., a banana chips company partly owned by Carpio, were closed in July 2026, the same month the impeachment trial began.
The first account, ending in 2013, had a 2025 ending balance of P16,987.59, while the second, ending in 8581, had a 2025 balance of P21,164.27. [5]
The prosecution’s attempt to probe whether BPI maintained foreign accounts for Duterte and Carpio was blocked after Presiding Officer Francis Escudero sustained a defense objection, ruling the inquiry was outside the scope of the subpoena.
Escudero also scolded the prosecution’s assisting counsel for failing to have documents ready to support public prosecutor and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Lordan Suan during the presentation of insurance company witnesses, and separately reprimanded the clerk of court secretariat for minor inefficiencies.
Palace press officer Claire Castro, a lawyer, weighed in on the evidentiary significance of the bank records, saying they carry substantial value and would be difficult to dispute without evidence of tampering. She was quoted as saying, Bank records do not lie.
Also, outside the court, Sens. Robinhood Padilla and Bong Go and PDP-Laban filed a fresh Supreme Court petition on Sept. 29 to block application of the Senate’s reduced impeachment conviction-vote threshold, even as an earlier set of three similar petitions was dismissed.