With Chinese contributions, Sara possibly broke 3 laws
VP Sara Duterte’s acceptance of P150-million contribution from China in 2019 merits full investigation. It was an election year in which Sara ran and won as Davao city mayor. The Omnibus Election Code punishes soliciting and accepting foreign contributions with one to six years in prison, and permanent ban from suffrage and public office.
Ex-senator Sonny Trillanes exposed last Friday the P150-million dole. Defense Sec. Gilbert Teodoro wants documents turned over to authorities for scrutiny.
The Chinese embassy gave the P150 million not directly to Sara but to the nonprofit she heads. Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines is declared in her 2022 and 2023 statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.
No politico would admit to directly accepting foreign money. Allegations of $10-million bribe to sign the National Broadband Network-ZTE deal in Boao, China just before the 2007 election rocked Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency.
TMAP lists Sara and Taguig mayor Lani Cayetano, wife of Sen. Alan Cayetano, as trustees/convenors. Also trustees are Sara’s former spokesman and legal counsel Reynold Munsayac and Davao city information officer Jefrey Tupas.
The P150 million was supposedly for “construction of 13 classroom buildings.” Meaning, unit cost of P11.54 million.
Trillanes said TMAP received the donation in 2019 and disbursed the last P8.42 million in 2020. The embassy and TMAP signed the donation in August 2018 in coordination with DepEd-Davao.
In 2019 DPWH built classrooms for P1.2 million to P2.5 million each. If by Angat Buhay Foundation of then-VP Leni Robredo, it was only P850,000.
The Constitution forbids foreign political contributions. Article IX-C, Constitutional Commissions, Section 2 (5) states:
“Financial contributions from foreign governments and their agencies to political parties, organizations, coalitions or candidates related to elections constitute interference in national affairs and, when accepted, shall be an additional ground for the cancellation of their registration with the Commission on Elections, in addition to other penalties that may be prescribed by law.”
Article XI, Accountability of Public Officers, Section 1 also enshrines public office as public trust, and lays the foundation for strict anti-corruption rules.
RA 6713, Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, Section 7 (d) prohibits them from soliciting or accepting – directly or indirectly – any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of monetary value from any person in connection with official duties or regulated transactions.
RA 3019, Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Section 2 (c) penalizes officials for accepting or receiving gifts, presents or benefits from private or foreign entities in connection with official intervention or favor.
Sara launched TMAP on Oct. 23, 2017 at a big bash at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Present were then-foreign secretary Alan and wife mayor Lani Cayetano. Also Sara’s brother, present Davao Mayor Sebastian Duterte, then-Ilocos Norte governor-now-senator Imee Marcos and ex-president Joseph Estrada.
TMAP brought together groups and individuals supportive of then-president Rody Duterte. Throughout 2017 Duterte continuously belittled Manila’s arbitral victory against Beijing over the West Philippine Sea. In 2018 he professed love for President Xi Jinping, whom he asked to make the Philippines a Chinese province.
In 2019 – the year of the P150-million contribution – he dismissed as “ordinary maritime accident” the midnight hit-and-run by a Chinese maritime militia steel trawler of an anchored Filipino wooden boat. Twenty-two fishermen were thrown into the cold dark sea off Palawan.
Trillanes bared another P319 million from the “Chinese government and corporations” to Sara’s spouse Manases Carpio’s Cale88 Foods Corp. Cale88 is one of 18 firms that Sara declared in her SALNs. It reportedly trades banana chips.
Cale88 had no sale in 2021 and only P20,000 in 2022, Trillanes added. Sales zoomed to P23.15 million in 2023, then fivefold to P150.76 million in 2024 and P34.55 million in 2025.
Yet in 2024 Cale88 paid BIR only P10,705 income tax, Trillanes noted. It listed no rank-and-file employees and ended the year with P400,294 cash.
Cale88 factory’s electricity bill was only P8,000 a month in 2023. Trillanes said: “Hindi ‘yan pang-factory ng banana chips.”
It had no trade receivables or payables, implying that it bought and sold goods only in cash. “Parang banana-que stall, ’pag bumili ng materials at magbenta, cash.”
Sara’s lawyer Paolo Panelo retorted Saturday: “Trillanes has been peddling exhausted lies since 2016.
“He’s been peddling the same exhausted lies regarding extrajudicial killings, fabricated drug links, imaginary unexplained wealth, baseless corruption allegations and fictional China connections against the Duterte family.
“Because of these repeated, unmasked deceptions, the Filipino people have rightfully and overwhelmingly rejected Trillanes in every subsequent attempt to get elected back into public office.”
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