ASEANEWS HEADLINE-VP DU30 IMPEACHMENT 10.12.26 DAY #38 | Unexplained wealth of VP could hit P1.5B

Watch the LIVE special coverage of Day 38 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte with The Vice President on Trial: GMA News Special Coverage. The Senate impeachment court will continue discussing Article Il of the Articles of Impeachment, which tackles the alleged “Unexplained Wealth, False SALNs, and Continued Business Interests” of Vice President Sara Duterte. Stay informed with comprehensive, balanced, and up-to-date reporting as GMA News brings you live coverage of the 38th day of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial. Get the latest developments, live proceedings, expert analysis, and real-time updates from the Senate, with accurate, in-depth coverage of one of the country’s most significant political events. Stream our special coverage of the 38th day of the impeachment trial on October 12, 2026, airing on GTV and streaming live across the official GMA News digital platforms.

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VICE President Sara Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, could have up to P1.5 billion in unexplained wealth from 2022 to 2025, nearly double the prosecution’s conservative estimate of P817.87 million, financial forensic analyst Alexander Cabrera told the Senate impeachment court on Monday.

Testifying on Day 38 of Duterte’s impeachment trial, Cabrera confirmed the maximum estimate after Senate President and Presiding Officer Francis Escudero sought clarification on the potential total, excluding double-counting of assets.

“I’ll be more specific, sir. P1.5 billion would be the maximum estimate of the undeclared wealth of the respondents from 2022 to 2025, without any double booking?” Escudero asked.

“Yes,” Cabrera replied.

“The amounts vary each year, and when you add them all up, that would be the ceiling,” Escudero said, explaining that the amounts varied by year and would reach that ceiling when added together.

“That’s correct,” Cabrera said.

Escudero then asked Cabrera how high the estimate could go if the prosecution’s financial analysis did not rely on conservative assumptions.

Escudero also pointed out that deducting assets attributed to MetroChow, Cale88 and GenCorp from the P817-million total in undeclared assets would still leave P463.046 million in alleged unexplained wealth.

The deductions included P142.198 million attributed to Cale88 and P212 million in GenCorp assets, based on the figures cited during the proceedings.

The higher estimate could reach P1.5 billion if confidential funds, discrepancies reflected in Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) reports and less conservative figures for GenCorp were factored into the computation, Cabrera said.

The estimates cover the period from 2022 to 2025 and are based on the documents and assumptions discussed during the proceedings.

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Unexplained inflows

A banana chip exporter linked to Vice President Duterte’s husband reported persistent losses despite substantial cash inflows, Cabrera testified.

Another company also linked to the vice president had P1 billion in alleged undeclared inflows, he said.

Cabrera flagged financial discrepancies involving the two companies, Cale88 Foods Corp. and GenCorp Industries Inc., as senators scrutinized their transactions, potential tax liabilities and ownership structures.

Cabrera also defended his estimate of P817.87 million in alleged unexplained wealth involving Duterte and her husband from 2022 to 2025, while acknowledging that P211 million of the total depended on an assumption about Duterte’s ownership stake in GenCorp.

During his interjection, Senator-Judge and Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian questioned Cabrera about P1 billion in alleged undeclared inflows recorded by GenCorp from 2022 to 2025.

Cabrera said the funds were not reflected in the company’s balance sheet, income statement or income tax returns, based on his analysis.

Asked whether the money could have come from loans, advances or pass-through transactions rather than sales, Cabrera said this was unlikely because such transactions should also have been recorded as payables.

Using a 25-percent tax rate, he estimated GenCorp’s potential tax liability at P250 million.

He agreed that the circumstances could warrant examining whether the corporate veil could be pierced, potentially extending liability to shareholders if the legal requirements were met.

Cabrera acknowledged that he had not prepared specific court rulings involving the piercing of the corporate veil in cases of unpaid taxes but promised to submit a relevant case reference to the Senate.

Discrepancies noted

He also questioned discrepancies between GenCorp’s general information sheet (GIS) and Duterte’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). Duterte’s name was reportedly absent from the company’s GIS, although GenCorp appeared in her SALN.

Cabrera said he gave greater weight to the SALN because it is signed under oath. He also questioned whether GenCorp’s corporate disclosures adequately identified its ultimate beneficial owner under Securities and Exchange Commission rules.

He said his team used a 20-percent ownership stake for Duterte as a conservative assumption, based partly on her SALN declaration and previous business relationships.

He acknowledged that the actual percentage could be lower or higher and required verification.

Cabrera previously testified that GenCorp’s revenue rose from about P28 million in 2021 to more than P520 million in 2025, despite reported paid-in capital of only P1.25 million.

He said the company’s financial statements did not clearly explain the sources of funds supporting its growth and acquisitions.

Cale88 Foods Corp., a banana chip exporter linked to Carpio, also came under scrutiny over its financial statements and substantial cash movements.

Questioned by Senator-Judge Raffy Tulfo, Cabrera said a comparison with five or six similarly sized export companies revealed differences in assets, inventories and profitability.

He pointed to the absence of recorded accounts payable, accounts receivable and raw-material or work-in-process inventories despite Cale88’s purported manufacturing and export operations.

“There are really many things that are not in the proper place in that financial statement,” Cabrera said.

He added that the company continued to report losses despite substantial amounts moving through its accounts.

Cabrera likened the transactions to a revolving door, with money flowing in and quickly going out without an apparent contribution to the company’s operations. He cautioned that this pattern warranted scrutiny but did not, by itself, establish wrongdoing.

Cale88 was also flagged for about P35 million in alleged undeclared inflows. Cabrera estimated a potential tax liability of P5 million to P6 million based on the documents his team reviewed.

The AMLC had reported about P1.25 billion in covered and suspicious transactions involving Cale88 from 2022 to 2025, including P319.33 million in remittances originating from China and Hong Kong, according to testimony presented during the proceedings.

Gatchalian separately questioned the discrepancy between an AMLC report indicating about P700 million in total inflows and Cabrera’s calculation of about P247 million in bank inflows.

Cabrera said the difference could partly reflect duplicate tagging when funds entered foreign-currency accounts and were subsequently converted into pesos or transferred elsewhere. He said his team attempted to eliminate duplicate transactions and adopted a conservative approach.

Senator-Judge Bam Aquino pressed Cabrera to distinguish findings based on documentary records from estimates dependent on assumptions about corporate ownership and the attribution of undeclared income.

The discussion centered on Table 39 of Cabrera’s report, which covered undeclared cash balances, personal properties and investments, unexplained outflows, and income attributed to companies.

Cabrera acknowledged that the 20-percent ownership interest attributed to Duterte in GenCorp was an assumption rather than a figure established by the corporate records he examined.

Aquino stressed that the actual ownership percentage could differ and that the final estimate should be determined by the evidence.

After excluding about P211 million associated with the GenCorp ownership assumption, Cabrera said the remaining estimate was about P606 million based on the records examined.

Aquino cautioned against introducing other allegations to offset reductions in the total, emphasizing that each component of the calculation should stand on its own evidentiary basis.

Cabrera said his analysis also considered whether undeclared corporate income could be attributed to beneficial owners under the legal doctrine of piercing the corporate veil. He acknowledged that the senator-judges would have to assess whether the doctrine applied.

During cross-examination, defense counsel Kristine Ferrer questioned Cabrera’s methodology, his access to corporate records and the absence of direct input from Duterte and Carpio.

Cabrera acknowledged that he had not received documents directly from the couple for his forensic accounting review.

He said his team examined materials submitted in connection with Duterte’s responses to the House of Representatives and the Senate but found no documents from the couple that could be used in the analysis.

“Had there been, I would have used [them],” Cabrera said.

Ferrer also questioned findings concerning alleged advances to Cale88, including P8.7 million attributed to Carpio in 2022, noting that Cabrera had not examined the company’s books of accounts.

Cabrera confirmed that his analysis attributed a 20-percent capital interest in Cale88 to Duterte based on documents examined by the prosecution.

He also acknowledged that time constraints prevented his team from reviewing all the bank documents provided and said the AMLC report was not used to determine Duterte’s net assets.

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Meanwhile, Senator-Judge Francis Pangilinan questioned P41 million in cash withdrawals made by Carpio on Aug. 6, 2024, six days after drug-related charges were filed against him in connection with the alleged magnetic lifter incident.

Pangilinan said Duterte had resigned as Education secretary on July 19, 2024, while the charges against Carpio were filed on July 30.

According to Cabrera’s report, Carpio withdrew the money within about one hour and 13 minutes.

“I became curious about what happened on Aug. 6, or where they were at the time,” Pangilinan said.

Cabrera confirmed that the accounts belonged to Carpio and described the sequence of transactions as unusual, noting that withdrawals resumed immediately after a lunch break.

He cautioned, however, that the timing and amount of the withdrawals did not establish that the transactions were unlawful.

Pangilinan also questioned the reported transfer of Carpio’s shares in Cale88 to Pikimong Pikimong Philippines Corp. in 2025.

Cabrera said his team continued to attribute the shares to Carpio because it found no documentation establishing that the transfer had taken place.

He described Pikimong Pikimong as a shell company, citing records showing two shareholders, equity of P56,000 in 2024 and reported assets of P86,000 in 2025.

“Because there is no record of the transfer, the official records prevail,” Cabrera said.

Pangilinan also questioned the repeated conversion of cash into manager’s checks, including checks issued in Carpio’s name.

Cabrera said converting cash into a manager’s check did not remove the obligation to declare the amount in a SALN.

He identified P96 million in manager’s checks that he said should have been reflected as receivables in the relevant SALNs.

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‘Why don’t you show it?’

Cabrera challenged Vice President Duterte’s camp on Monday to produce documents clarifying questionable financial transactions involving companies linked to her and her husband, while acknowledging that he could not trace the ultimate destination of some funds.

“If you’re hiding it, why don’t you show it to the other side?” Cabrera told Senator-Judge Joel Villanueva during the 38th day of Duterte’s impeachment trial.

Villanueva asked whether Cabrera had documentary evidence showing that funds from companies such as Cale88 Foods Corp. and GenCorp Industries Inc. had entered the couple’s personal bank accounts, or whether his calculations were based on their proportional ownership in the businesses.

Cabrera said he could not confirm whether the alleged unreported funds had reached their personal accounts.

“There are many outflows from the corporation. The problem is, this is all we can see,” he said, explaining that available records did not identify the sources of some incoming funds or the recipients and purposes of outgoing transactions.

He said a more comprehensive forensic investigation would be needed to trace the money and potentially establish grounds for a criminal case.

Cabrera stressed that his mandate was limited to assessing whether Duterte’s wealth was manifestly disproportionate to her declared income, examining her business interests and evaluating the accuracy of her SALN.

Villanueva also questioned whether Cabrera had counted Duterte’s personal income twice in calculating the alleged P817.87 million in unexplained wealth.

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The senator-judge pointed to discrepancies between Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) records and Cabrera’s report for 2023 to 2025, which appeared to show the same income counted under both compensation income and a combined category covering compensation and business income.

Cabrera acknowledged that his team may have double-counted about P14.37 million.

Asked how the potential duplication would affect his estimate, Cabrera said the adjustment would not overturn his broader findings on alleged undeclared assets and wealth disproportionate to Duterte’s income.

Villanueva also flagged discrepancies between tables in Cabrera’s report showing corporate income figures for 2022 and 2023, particularly those involving Cale88, Metro City Chow and GenCorp.

Cabrera said supporting working papers were available but acknowledged that he could not immediately explain one discrepancy. He committed to reviewing the records and reconciling the figures.

He said he was willing to revise his computation if additional documents warranted adjustments.

“If the P817 million figure is wrong, I will admit it,” Cabrera said, adding that his conclusions would be based on the evidence available to him.

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‘I’m not scared’

During cross-examination, defense counsel Kristine Ferrer challenged Cabrera over his receipt of bank and AMLC documents, citing confidentiality provisions under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), the Bank Secrecy Law and the National Internal Revenue Code.

Ferrer asked whether Cabrera had considered that officials who provided the records, including bank and AMLC personnel, might have violated confidentiality laws.

Cabrera said his concern was receiving documents from the prosecution for his analysis.

Ferrer cited provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9160, or the AMLA, including restrictions on disclosing information and penalties for violations.

“I will no longer specify the penalties, but it includes imprisonment and a fine. This is not meant to scare you,” Ferrer said.

“I’m not scared,” Cabrera replied.

He said he believed receiving the documents was acceptable because the matter had already been discussed in the House of Representatives.

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Ferrer also invoked the Bank Secrecy Law and questioned whether Cabrera was concerned about receiving bank records without authorization from the impeachment court.

Cabrera referred to RA 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, which contains provisions concerning bank deposits in determining whether a public official’s property is manifestly disproportionate to income.

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Duterte testimony not needed

The House prosecution team on Monday announced it would no longer call Vice President Duterte to testify in her impeachment trial, after previously naming Cabrera as its final witness.

Prosecution spokesman Benjamin Tolosa Jr. said Duterte’s sworn declarations, SALNs, bank records, and tax filings had already provided relevant information without the need for her testimony.

“We don’t see the need to get her testimony anymore when the records, most of them which came from her, already spoke loudly,” Tolosa said in a press conference on Day 38 of the hearing.

“So, if the vice president were simply going to say — much like the other witnesses we heard — that there were many matters she knew nothing about, we didn’t see the need to burden the court’s calendar and the senator-judges with that kind of testimony,” he added in Filiipino.

Private prosecutor Lorna Kapunan said putting Duterte on the witness stand would be a “an absolute waste of prosecutors’ time” as they expect the vice president’s testimony to be “predictable.” “From everything we have heard from the defense, she is just going to say, hindi ko alam (I didn’t know). That is all she is going to say on the witness stand. She is not going to enlighten the senator-judges, nor the public for her accountability of public funds, unexplained wealth, and grave threats to the president, first lady, and former speaker,” Kapunan said in a separate chance interview.

“I could imagine that the defense would have better control of her, tell her what to say, and tell her how to behave. So, we leave it to the defense,” she added.

And if Duterte should finally appear, Kapunan expressed no qualms about taking the cudgels for the prosecution in scrutinizing her testimony.

“But just a warning to the defense. Please, if you want to present the vice president, please do so because I’m just dying to examine her. I will volunteer,” she said.

Although the panel has decided not to present Duterte as a hostile witness, she could still appear before the impeachment court should her defense team see the need to do so.

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“That could be their legal strategy for the vice president to explain issues,” Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said.

The panel earlier informed the impeachment court of its decision to drop Article III which accuses the vice president of bribing officials of the Department of Education to influence procurement decisions during her tenure as head of the agency.

The move was intended to keep the proceedings on schedule, with the proceedings slated to be on a monthlong break after this week.

Prosecutors are now preparing for the forthcoming presentation of evidence by Duterte’s defense team.