Senate President and senator-judge Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian on Tuesday questioned Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura over a reported P776 million cash inflow into Cale88 Foods Corp., a company linked to Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, Atty. Manases “Mans” Carpio.
During the day 34 of impeachment trial, Gatchalian asked Buenaventura whether the P776 million could serve as a starting point for a possible money laundering investigation if it could not be accounted for in Cale88’s books.
“Kung hindi mahanap sa libro yung P776 million, candidate ba itong Cale88 for money laundering?” Gatchalian asked.
“As starting point, maaari po," Buenaventura replied.
Buenaventura said the company could be considered a candidate for a money-laundering investigation, but stressed that the AMLC would have to examine other factors before reaching a conclusion.
“Pwede siyang maging candidate. If candidate lang po, yes. But we have to consider all other factors pa po,” Buenaventura said.
According to records presented during the proceedings, Cale88 had a paid-up capital of only P125,000, while its cumulative sales since 2021 amounted to around P23 million and its assets stood at about P18 million and P20 million in liabilities.
Gatchalian then pressed Buenaventura on where the P776 million went, noting that the amount was not reflected in the company’s records.
Buenaventura said there was no record showing where the money went and explained that determining whether the transactions constituted money laundering would require establishing the source of the funds and whether they were connected to an unlawful activity.
The AMLC official said investigators would have to determine whether the funds were proceeds of illegal activities, citing offenses such as kidnapping for ransom and drug trafficking as examples.
Buenaventura also explained that a transaction may be considered suspicious when there is no underlying legal or trade obligation, purpose or economic justification.
Another factor, he said, is when the amount or nature of a transaction does not match the client’s known business or financial capacity.
Gatchalian asked whether the discrepancy between Cale88’s P125,000 paid-up capital and the reported P776 million inflow could fall under such circumstances.
Buenaventura, however, stopped short of making a definitive conclusion, saying the AMLC would have to consider the totality of the circumstances and conduct further investigation.
Gatchalian also asked whether the AMLC would examine the legitimacy of Chinese entities involved in the company’s transactions, noting that a significant portion of Cale88’s inflows reportedly came from China.
Buenaventura said such entities and transactions would be examined as part of the AMLC’s normal investigative process.
Separately, AMLC testimony showed that Cale88 received around P319.33 million in inward remittances from China and Hong Kong, including about P315.94 million from mainland China. Three of these transactions were reportedly flagged as suspicious.
The AMLC also testified that covered and suspicious transactions involving the accounts of Duterte and Carpio reached around P4.4 billion from 2007 to 2025.
These included about P1.63 billion in inflows, P1.3 billion in outflows and roughly P1.4 billion in transactions where the direction of the funds could not be determined.
The financial transactions are being examined as part of the Senate impeachment court’s proceedings on Article II of Duterte’s impeachment case, which centers on alleged unexplained wealth and other financial irregularities.
