SENATOR-JUDGES focused on the finances of Cale88 Foods Corporation and transactions linked to Atty. Manases “Mans” Carpio during Day 34 of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial on Tuesday, October 6, raising questions about unexplained funds and an unusually large banking system error.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian pressed Anti‑Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura over ₱776 million in inflows to Cale88 — a company with only ₱125,000 in paid‑up capital and cumulative sales of just ₱23 million since 2021. “If the ₱776 million cannot be found in the books, is Cale88 a candidate for money laundering?” Gatchalian asked, noting that half the amount came from foreign entities.
Buenaventura responded that an unrecorded inflow far exceeding a firm’s declared capital or assets could indeed be the starting point for an investigation, but establishing money laundering would first require proving a “predicate crime” — such as drug trafficking or corruption — as the source of the funds.
Separately, Senator‑judge Vicente Sotto III raised concerns about a reported ₱2‑billion discrepancy in transaction reports from Carpio’s account at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI). The AMLC confirmed that BPI had requested to correct 13 erroneous Covered Transaction Reports (CTRs), explaining that what appeared as ₱6.7 billion across 630 reports actually included a ₱2‑billion overstatement that should have been ₱2 million.
Buenaventura clarified that the AMLC validated the bank’s request and conducted an audit before allowing the correction, attributing the difference to a reporting error. Sotto expressed skepticism about the scale of the mistake.
“In all my years of having bank accounts in various banks, I have never heard of anyone becoming a billionaire because of a bank system glitch,” he remarked. Buenaventura acknowledged that he could not say how common such incidents are, but confirmed this was the largest discrepancy of its kind he had encountered as AMLC chief. He added that the council regularly receives correction requests for reporting errors, though he could not provide data on how many accounts or which other banks have been affected.
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