‘Smoking gun’? Gap between VP’s bank info, SALN noted
Bank transactions worth billions of pesos and tied to Vice President Sara Duterte did not match the net worth she had been declaring annually, based on records presented on Wednesday during House deliberations on the impeachment complaints against her.
According to Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, the disparity could be the “smoking gun” for one of the accusations made in the complaints: That she amassed unexplained wealth while in office.
It was also revealed that Duterte became a “subject of suspicion” in 27 reports prepared by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) between August 2024 and January 2026.
This was the period when she came under intense scrutiny by the previous Congress over her use of confidential funds, and an earlier attempt to impeach her succeeded at the House before being stopped by the Supreme Court from going to trial in the Senate.
In compliance with the subpoena issued by the House committee on justice, the AMLC on Wednesday disclosed that an unspecified number of bank accounts linked to Duterte logged 417 transactions involving a total of P3.92 billion from 2005 to 2026.
‘Discrepancy is enormous’
During the same period, about P4.42 billion flowed into the accounts, P1.55 billion was transferred out, and around P791 million was not verified whether it was an inflow or an outflow, according to the AMLC summary report.
Earlier in the hearing, the Office of the Ombudsman presented Duterte’s SALN (or statement of assets, liabilities and net worth) from 2007 to 2024 indicating that her declared cash and bank deposits ranged between P2 million and P3.8 million.
Diokno took note of the gap between the AMLC and SALN tallies.
“The discrepancy between the two figures is enormous, and she must explain it either here in the committee or in the Senate,” Diokno told reporters.
“This is the smoking gun as far as probable cause is concerned,” he said. “That is something we cannot reconcile.”
House quadcom hearings
The AMLC also reported that “VP Sara was the subject of suspicion in 27 confidential reports submitted by covered persons on 2 August 2024 to 29 January 2026, citing suspected activities involving drug trafficking and related offenses, graft and corrupt activities, and malversation of public funds and property.”
The reports were “triggered [by] the House Quad Committee hearing on former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, as well as by news reports alleging the involvement of VP Sara’s husband in the P6.4 billion shabu importation in 2017.”
They were also made “in relation to news articles related to the impeachment case filed against VP Sara in 2025, as well as alleged misuse of confidential/intelligence funds.”
The disclosures by the AMLC and the Ombudsman were expected to apply more pressure on Duterte. The impeachment complaints also accused her of misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds that were granted to the Office of the Vice President and to the Department of Education, which she also headed from 2022 to 2024.
There was no immediate comment from the Vice President or her defense team’s spokesperson, lawyer Michael Poa.
No disclosure since 2019
According to the SALNs presented, Duterte included her liquid cash holdings in her statement for 2007, the year she was elected to public office for the first time as vice mayor of Davao City, her family’s political bailiwick.
After her reelection in 2019, she stopped declaring petty cash and bank deposits in her subsequent SALNs up to 2024. By then, she had been elected Davao City mayor and later Vice President.
“Nothing was indicated,” said lawyer Karen Batu, who spoke for the Office of the Ombudsman in the presentation. Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla was present in the early parts of the hearing but later asked to be excused.
Before she stopped her cash declarations, Duterte’s SALN showed that she had P2 million in petty cash and bank deposits from 2007 to 2008. The amount rose to P2.8 million in 2009, P3.66 million in 2010, P3.93 million in 2011, then P4.32 million in 2012.
Duterte did not hold any public office from 2013 to 2015. In 2016, back as Davao mayor, she declared P3.75 million in cash and bank deposits. The figure reached P6.36 million in 2017, and then P3.79 million in 2018.
“The sudden and continuous absence of declarations of liquid assets… casts doubt on the accuracy and completeness of Vice President Sara’s subsequent SALNs,’’ Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima said during the hearing.
Rise in net worth
As to Duterte’s declared net worth, the presented SALNs indicated that it started at P7.25 million in 2007. After five years, it had grown to P22 million by 2012.
After her three-year break from public office, her net worth stood at P34.89 million in 2016. It was also the year her father, Rodrigo Duterte, was elected president.
In 2017, her net worth grew to P44.82 million; then P49.69 million in 2018.
It reached P55.61 million in 2019, P56.58 million in 2020, and P65.30 million in 2021.
Her net worth in 2022, the year she became Vice President, was P71.05 million. A year later, it hit P77.50 million, then P88.51 million when last reported in 2024.
Accounts with husband
The AMLC made a separate report to the committee on a set of bank accounts that were traced both to Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio.
These accounts saw more than 600 transactions involving P6.7 billion from 2005 to 2026, according to AMLC Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura.
Of the total transactions, the banks flagged 33 for being “suspicious’’ or involving amounts exceeding P500,000 in a single day, Buenaventura said.
Transactions considered “suspicious” under the Philippine banking system refer to cash flows that arouse doubt about the client’s identity, trade obligations or financial capacity.
“We do not look at personalities,” Buenaventura explained to the panel. “What we examine are the data and the numbers.”
“What we focus on, more than the people behind them, is the movement, flow and the frequency of flows, and whether there is anything unusual in that flow,” he added.
A separate AMLC report showed that about P3.92 billion in transactions flowed through Duterte’s accounts from 2005 to January 2026. Financial activity in the accounts “significantly” started in 2007, when transfers surged to P208.15 million.
About P1.41 billion entered Duterte’s accounts from 2006 to 2022.
“Financial movements intensified between 2009 and 2013, with consistently high annual totals exceeding P400 million, including notable peaks in 2009 (P704.93 million), 2010 (P648.58 million), and 2011 (P597.15 million),” the council’s report said.
Financial activity tapered from 2014 onward, with transaction values ranging between P40 million and P85 million.
“A moderate uptick was again observed in 2024 (P13.45 million) before declining in 2025 and early 2026,” it added.
Seeing the figures, Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon remarked: “It speaks to the clear disparity from what had been stated in the year-on-year SALNs of the Vice President.”
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