A sordid tale

Forensic accounting is an accounting approach that utilizes accounting techniques, auditing processes and investigative skills to search for evidence of financial crimes.

Professionals in this field analyze financial records and transactions to identify potential fraud or financial misconduct.

The house prosecution panel in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte presented lawyer Alexander Cabrera as a financial forensic analyst and expert witness to examine and explain the financial records of Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio.

His testimony relates to Article II of the Articles of Impeachment, which alleged that Duterte amassed unexplained wealth, failed to fully disclose her assets and failed to divest herself of business interests while in office.

Cabrera, who retired in 2025 as chairman of Isla Lipana & Co. (PwC Philippines), presented a forensic report identifying roughly P817.87 million in alleged undeclared wealth and discrepancies linked to the spouses.

The figure includes 207.7 million of undeclared cash, P143.5 million of undeclared other personal and real properties, P111.85 million in undeclared income of Duterte and Carpio, P142.2 million in undeclared income from Cale 88 Foods Corp. and Metro Chow King Food Corp. and P212.63 million in undeclared income from Gencorp Industries from 2022 to 2025.

Cabrera began his pro bono forensic examination in June 2026 using documents from the House impeachment proceedings while additional financial records from banks, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenues reached him in September.

He detailed the discoveries that he made while reviewing the financial and tax documents of Duterte and Carpio through the direct examination conducted by House prosecutor Rep. Chel Diokno.

I was expecting a boring direct considering the volume of financial records and numbers that were going to be revealed but Rep. Chel asked simple questions while providing the narrative structure and Cabrera answered in an uncomplicated manner while supplying the financial analysis.

They were talking about bank transactions, records, insurance policies and financial statements but in such a way that everyone understood. As someone pointed out, it was like watching a courtroom detective story unfold, a mind-boggling narrative backed by solid evidence.

The amounts being spent were unimaginable. According to Cabrera, Duterte and her husband used their credit cards to spend nearly P600,000 in just two separate visits to Nike stores in Davao City and Kuala Lumpur. He also revealed that they also used their credit card to pay P205,000 for just one visit to the Ginza Inakaya restaurant in Tokyo, Japan.

There was also testimony about a certain Lourdes Libosada, a dentist, who received P11.35 million. Libosada, Cabrera said, is a partner of Maneses Carpio in Cale 88 which is engaged in banana chip manufacture and export and the too own an equal stake in the business.

Between 2022 and 2025, the company received around P776 million in remittances from abroad, which included P319 million from Chinese companies, some which are tied to Chinese state-owned or controlled enterprises.

The AMLC confirmed the remittances before the Senate impeachment court last Oct. 5 based on covered and suspicious transaction reports submitted by banks and other financial institutions.

Cabrera described Cale 88’s financial transactions as a revolving door, a symptom of money laundering.

When money enters the company and leaves on the same day or the following day, it means it has not added any value to the company, he said.

He said during the direct examination that the transactions could indicate that Cale 88 was being used as a pass-through for funds under the pretense of business activity.

The company had no payables or receivables despite being a manufacturer or exporter of manufactured goods, had no inventory of raw materials or work in process, while continuing to incur losses regardless of the amount of money passing through its accounts.

Cabrera also flagged what he described as unusual banking behavior or tinikling, a practice of the Dutertes of purchasing managers checks which are left uncashed.

By leaving the checks unutilized for six months, the money was kept afloat and effectively taken off the account’s balance sheet.

Once the manager’s check becomes stale, the funds automatically return to the source bank account.

He explained that this practice was used to hide wealth from year-end bank balances. Because a public official’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth is calculated based on the account’s December 31 closing balance, removing the cash via manager’s checks could prevent discrepancies from being detected.

The House prosecution has concluded its presentation of evidence in the impeachment trial of Sara Duterte and expressed confidence that the evidence, including Cabrera’s findings, are enough to support a conviction.

According to House impeachment team adviser and spokesperson Ace Barbers, Cabrera tied together the evidence supporting Article II of the impeachment complaint against Duterte, adding that the pieces of documentary evidence are incontrovertible and could serve as the final nail in the coffin.

The defense has yet to present its evidence. The prosecution’s allegations and Cabrera’s findings remain subject to evaluation by the Senate impeachment court.

The numbers and financial records and transactions that were presented have definitely left a bad taste in the mouth of everyone who was tuned into the impeachment trial.

But are they enough to convict? Let’s hope that they are able to wrap this matter up soon so that everyone can go back to dealing with the unresolved flood control controversy and the sad state of the economy, especially with the peso hitting a new record low of P63 to $1.

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