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Jose Rodel Clapano - The Philippine Star
April 26, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The billions of pesos in bank transactions flagged by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) may represent only a fraction of the actual money that moved through the bank accounts of Vice President Sara Duterte, Manila Rep. Joel Chua said yesterday.
Chua, chairman of the House committee on good government and public accountability and a member of the House committee on justice, said the AMLC data – already reflecting P6.77 billion in flagged transactions – includes only “covered” and “suspicious” transactions, leaving out potentially vast amounts of smaller deposits that are not required to be reported.
“It doesn’t mean that it is their total deposit. There could be more,” Chua said at the Saturday News Forum at Dapo Restaurant in Quezon City.
“Those declared in AMLC, these are those covered transactions and suspicious transactions only. This does not include yet those entered or deposited in their account that are smaller than the covered transactions,” Chua said.
He explained that under existing rules, only transactions meeting a certain threshold are automatically reported to the AMLC.
“When you say covered transaction, it means P500,000 and above. When it is P500,000 and above, it is reported by the bank to the AMLC. But when it is below that, it is not reported,” Chua said.
Because of this, Chua said the figures presented to the House justice panel should not be treated as the total amount of deposits or transactions.
During last Wednesday’s impeachment clarificatory hearing, the AMLC confirmed that Duterte and her spouse Manases Carpio were linked to 663 bank transactions – 630 covered and 33 suspicious – amounting to P6.77 billion.
Of the total, P4.42 billion represented inflows and P1.55 billion outflows, with an additional P791.1 million classified as undetermined.
Chua issued the clarification amid claims from Duterte’s legal camp that the AMLC figures were “bloated” or overstated, arguing that the data merely reflects the movement of funds and not necessarily personal wealth or ownership.
But Chua said such arguments miss the point of the inquiry, stressing that the AMLC report is not being used to conclude guilt but to establish patterns that require explanation.
“We are establishing unexplained wealth here. Meaning, the increase in wealth,” Chua said.
“For us to know it, we have to see the unexplained wealth and look at its history. Since she started in government and at present she is serving as Vice President,” Chua said.
He underscored that public officials must be able to show that their declared income is sufficient to support their accumulated wealth as reflected in their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs).
Chua said Duterte should establish and show that her earnings are proportionate to her SALN declaration.
Data presented at Wednesday’s hearing by a representative from the Office of the Ombudsman showed Duterte’s declared net worth rising from P7.25 million in 2007 to P88.51 million in 2024, with intermediate increases over the years.
However, Chua noted gaps between these declarations and the scale of transactions reflected in AMLC records.
“How the numbers that don’t jibe with numbers of AMLC can be explained, which declared P4.4 billion in inflow and P15 billion in outflow… meaning these are the money that were deposited and withdrawn,” he said.
The House committee on justice continues to examine the AMLC findings as it aims to establish probable cause to proceed with the impeachment case against the Vice President.
Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, chairman of the House committee on public accounts, said Duterte’s defense – as articulated by her spokesman Michael Po – only strengthened the case against her.
Poa earlier said the AMLC figures should be read with caution because they only reflect the simple addition of transactions over 18 to 19 years, and not the actual remaining balance in the accounts.
“If this movement of huge money that cannot be explained is true, it means it qualifies to the issue of unexplained wealth and betrayal of public trust. We are prepared to go to trial on that admission,” Ridon said in a statement.
“If they are saying that the numbers are not wrong, but only inaccurate, it means they are not opposing the huge amount of transactions. And when you do not oppose the billions of movement of money, it tightens the question on how it happened,” he added.
“The issue here is that there are movements of billions of money, it is not clear where it came from and it is not also clear where it goes. That is the entirety of questions on accountability,” Ridon said.
“If the difference is that huge, you cannot save yourself using the line that the presentation is wrong,” he added.
He also rejected the argument that the figures should not be alarming because they span nearly two decades.
“Even if the money just rolled, it has to be explained where the funds that were deposited in the accounts came from,” Ridon said.
He said the Vice President and her team should take part in the impeachment process and not resort to alibi or wordplay.
“Face the AMLC, face the numbers, face the documents,” he said.
