The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has no records showing that the P319.3 million received by CALE88 Foods Corp., a company linked to Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, Manases Carpio, came from the Chinese government, an AMLC official testified Tuesday.
During the resumption of the impeachment trial, defense lawyer Mark Vinluan asked AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura if the agency had any indication that the funds came from the Chinese government.
The P319.3 million was among CALE88’s transactions flagged by the AMLC as covered or suspicious. Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV had earlier identified the same amount as funds allegedly sent by the Chinese government.
Vinluan also asked Buenaventura whether AMLC records showed that China-based entities that transacted with CALE88 were illegitimate.
‘No, Your Honor, there’s nothing in the records,’ Buenaventura replied.
Senator-Judge Risa Hontiveros, however, said her office had researched two of the companies that transacted with CALE88: China National Township Enterprises and Beijing Jianweifang Food Co.
Hontiveros said China National Township Enterprises was previously directly under China’s Ministry of Agriculture and later became a state-owned agricultural enterprise under the country’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
She also said company profiles indicated that the firm supported the implementation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and foreign policy.
Hontiveros said Beijing Jianweifang Food Co. is owned by Xinjiang Fruit Industry Group, which she described as a Chinese state-owned enterprise.
She added that Xinjiang Fruit Industry Group has an embedded Chinese Communist Party organization within its corporate structure and that Beijing Jianweifang’s chairman is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
‘Bakit po ito mahalaga, Atty. Buenaventura?’ Hontiveros said, explaining that the companies’ alleged state links were relevant to the issue before the impeachment court.
(Why is this important, Atty. Buenaventura?)
Buenaventura began testifying for the prosecution Monday, when he confirmed several financial transactions involving Duterte and Carpio.
At one point, he testified that Duterte and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, had P193 million in unique bank transactions on March 28, 2014.
Later, Buenaventura testified that CALE88 received P319,326,770.41 in funds from China, confirming the figure earlier presented by Trillanes at a press briefing in San Juan.
Trillanes said Chinese firms sent the P319 million to CALE88 in tranches from 2023 to 2025.