Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on Tuesday observed an ‘unusual trend’ in the financial transactions reported by Vice President Sara Duterte based on Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) records.
‘From 2009 to 2013, ang transactions reported by VP Sara, for that time frame alone, it’s about P2.7 billion,’ Gatchalian pointed out while questioning prosecution witness, AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Atty. Ronel Buenaventura.
‘It appears that transaction alone accounts for almost 70% to 80% of the total P3.3 billion in transactions,’ he added.
A P700 million transaction, for instance, was reported in 2009, P600 million in 2010, and P500 million in 2011, according to the Senate chief, citing the AMLC records previously presented before the Senate impeachment court.
Buenaventura could not, however, comment on Gatchalian’s observation because he did not have a copy of the report on hand.
‘But it’s an unusual trend compared with the others, which average only P40 million in transactions, while this one involves about P2.7 billion in transactions over a five-year period,’ Gatchalian said.
‘In your opinion, is this something the AMLC should look into, even though I know it happened a long time ago?’ he asked.
While he could not still recall the contents of the said report, Buenaventura explained that generally, the AMLC also looks at historical transactions.
‘Your Honor, part of what we look at is whether there has been a sudden increase in the size of a transaction. That is part of the analysis that we generally conduct,’ the witness answered.
Still citing AMLC records, Gatchalian noted that 30 of the 34 suspicious transactions reports (STRs) involving Duterte were recorded between 2022 to 2025.
‘So that accounts for about 80% of her STRs in just three years. Why is it concentrated in those three years out of the entire 18-year period?’ the senator-judge asked the witness.
One of the documents the witness submitted to the Senate impeachment court was a tabular summary of STRs and covered suspicious transactions (CSRs) involving the vice president and her husband, Atty. Manases Carpio, from 2007 to 2025.
The summary showed a total of 666 CTRs and 55 STRs involving the couple, with a combined amount of P4.4 billion.
‘Your Honor, I cannot answer that. This is based on what appears in our records, which were reported by the covered person…’ Buenaventura said.