HOUSE lead prosecutor Atty. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro of Batangas on Monday rejected the defense’s assertion that the P4.4-billion figure presented by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) was bloated because it represented alleged aggregate transactions involving Vice President Sara Z. Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio.
“Let us not be confused. Ang subject matter ng testimony ni AMLC is transaction. He is not testifying on the amount maintained in the bank or the amount of the insurance policy,” Luistro said at a post-trial press briefing Monday night.
AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura testified that AMLC records contained alleged P4.4 billion in aggregate covered and suspicious transactions involving Duterte and Carpio from 2007 to 2025.
The amount consisted of P1.63 billion classified as inflows, P1.31 billion as outflows and P1.46 billion that AMLC could not reliably classify as either.
During cross-examination, defense counsel Mark Vinluan questioned the use of aggregate figures and suggested that totaling transactions could result in an inflated picture of the amounts involved.
Luistro said the P4.4-billion figure should not be confused with the amount of money maintained in bank accounts or the couple’s net worth.
“The primary subject matter of his testimony are the transactions reported by covered institutions to the [AMLC] on two bases: either covered transaction or suspicious transaction,” she said.
Luistro said the House Committee on Justice had subpoenaed AMLC records covering inflows, outflows, covered transaction reports (CTRs) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs) during its impeachment proceedings.
She said the AMLC submission included a summary of the transactions in its covering letter, including amounts that could not be classified as either inflows or outflows.
Buenaventura earlier clarified during his testimony that the P4.4 billion represented the aggregate value of CTRs and STRs involving Duterte and Carpio and did not represent their account balances or total wealth.
The prosecution intends to compare the financial transactions with Duterte’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth as part of its presentation under Article II of the impeachment case, which accuses her of unexplained wealth and failure to fully disclose her assets and financial interests.
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