Bank records will pin down VP Sara – prosecution

MANILA, Philippines — As the impeachment trial resumes today, the House prosecution panel is banking on a paper trail to pin down Vice President Sara Duterte on her alleged P6.7 billion in unexplained assets.

Executive director Ronel Buenaventura of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) is expected to take the witness stand either today or tomorrow as prosecutors move deeper into the financial evidence on the alleged unexplained wealth of Duterte and her husband Manases Carpio.

“Sometimes the incontrovertible evidence comes from documents and not from alleged (polluted) eyewitnesses,” House prosecutor and Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said over the weekend.

Ridon said the Senate impeachment court is entering the document-heavy phase of Article II, with the AMLC, seven banks, seven insurance companies and the Bureau of Internal Revenue expected to present records involving the Duterte couple. 

In a weekly regular news forum, Ridon said the absence of a witness personally recounting every transaction does not necessarily diminish the importance of records that could establish what actually occurred.

“Sometimes the incontrovertible evidence come from records, or those written or printed in very small fonts,” he added. 

Prosecutors have already presented records concerning real properties and firearms under Article II and is now moving to financial documents that prosecutors intend to compare with the assets and net worth declared in the Duterte couple’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

The prosecution is expected to ask the impeachment court to assess the financial records cumulatively against Duterte’s declared wealth, while the defense will have the opportunity to challenge their admissibility, interpretation and evidentiary weight. 

Of the total, about P3.77 billion was attributed to Duterte and P2.99 billion to Carpio. The records also showed roughly P4.4 billion in inflows and P1.5 billion in outflows.