By the Philippine News Agency
Two suspicious transaction reports (STRs) in the Anti-Money Laundering Council records involving Vice President Sara Duterte cited “graft and corrupt practices” and the flood-control issue, AMLC Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura testified on Monday.
The reports covered premium payments to Mercantile Insurance Company Inc. dated Nov. 15 and July 4, 2019.
The entries were among the 34 STRs involving the Vice President recorded in the AMLC summary from 2007 to 2025.
“Based on our summary, Your Honor, 34 STRs for Vice President Sara Duterte,” Buenaventura said during direct examination by private prosecutor Mae Divinagracia.
The same summary listed 30 STRs involving Duterte’s husband, lawyer Manases Carpio,
Buenaventura said the figures covered 2007 to 2025.
The filing of an STR does not by itself establish that a transaction was illegal or that the account holder committed the suspected offense. An STR records a report by a covered institution based on one or more circumstances specified under anti-money laundering rules.
Defense counsel Mark Vinluan objected because the two transactions occurred in 2019.
Divinagracia said the prosecution was presenting the entries as part of the financial pattern reflected in the AMLC records.
“We are not establishing baseline, we are establishing pattern, which is an allowable purpose for the presentation of it,” Divinagracia said.
The court noted the defense’s continuing objection and permitted Buenaventura to answer.
For the Nov. 15, 2019 entry, Buenaventura said the reporting institution recorded graft and corrupt practices as the reason for the STR.
“Based on the records, Your Honor, as reported by the covered person, the reason indicated is graft and corrupt practices,” he testified. Buenaventura then read the narrative supplied in the record.
“Several news outlets recently released a list of individuals and corporations identified as being involved in the Department of Public Works and Highways, DPWH, flood control issue, prompting the filing of a suspicious transaction report, Your Honor,” he said.
The July 4, 2019 entry also involved a premium payment to Mercantile Insurance Company.
Buenaventura said the record carried the same stated reason and substantially the same narrative concerning the DPWH flood-control issue.
The two entries carried different transaction reference numbers and formed part of the AMLC exhibit covering STRs involving Duterte.
Vinluan cautioned that the narrative did not establish a connection between the transactions and corporations identified in the news reports cited by the covered institution.
“I understand that that is what was written in the record, Your Honor, but it in no way creates a link between the actual corporation and the corporations mentioned by the news article,” Vinluan said.
Presiding officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the defense could examine the matter during its cross-examination of Buenaventura.
“And proper subject matter for cross,” Sen. Escudero said. “You may do that when your time to cross-examine counsel comes.”
The court noted the defense position and allowed the prosecution to continue identifying the AMLC entries.
STRs on Carpio cite P6.4-B shabu-importation rap
Meanwhile, STRs involving Carpio cited drug trafficking and a complaint over the alleged importation of 602 kilograms of shabu worth P6.4 billion, Buenaventura testified.
The report was dated Aug. 1, 2024 and involved a transaction reported by the Philippine Savings Bank.
Divinagracia directed Buenaventura to the line of the cited pages before asking why the covered institution had reported the transaction as suspicious.
Buenaventura testified that the stated reporting reason was drug trafficking and related offenses.
The STR narrative reproduced information from a news report about a criminal complaint filed on July 31, 2024. The complaint concerned the alleged importation of 602 kilograms of shabu valued at P6.4 billion in 2017.
Buenaventura read the narrative into the record; he said, “A criminal complaint for alleged importation of 602 kilos of shabu worth P6.4 billion in 2017 was filed on Wednesday, July 31, against Davao City First District Rep. Paolo Duterte, Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, Attorney Manases Carpio, and eight other persons before the Department of Justice.”
Among those named in the portion read aloud were then-Davao City 1st District Councilor Nilo Abellera Jr., former Bureau of Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, former BOC intelligence official Neil Anthony Estrella, retired Army colonel Allen Capuyan, and two businessmen.
Buenaventura confined his answers to the reporting reason, narrative, dates, transaction references, and account identifier contained in the reports.
It was not an AMLC finding that Carpio or any other person named in the narrative committed drug trafficking, imported illegal drugs, or received proceeds from an unlawful activity.
The prosecution presented the records for comparison with VP Duterte’s financial declarations and the remaining evidence under Article II. The weight and basis of the reports remain subject to cross-examination and the supporting records.
