‘May We Go Out?’

By Joey Salgado

It’s a fair question to ask: How many times has Vice President Sara Duterte’s defense team asked for a bathroom break since the prosecution began discussing the bank accounts?

On Wednesday, it was Atty. Michael Poa’s turn to ask permission to answer the call of nature. Presiding Officer Chiz Escudero let him go with a parting comment: “You may, you may. You’re excused, Attorney Mike. Why is your side always…” He never finished the sentence. The gallery finished it with laughter.

The Vice President’s lawyers would be the first to object to the inference but the pattern is hard to miss. The calls of nature seem to grow most urgent whenever the prosecution reaches for the bank records and asks a witness to verify its existence. Nakakaihi nga yata ang revelations.

And we can’t blame them.

In her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) from 2019 to 2024, the Vice President listed zero cash on hand and zero cash in bank. That’s six years without a single peso in the bank yet over the same period, her declared net worth climbed from P55.6 million to P88.5 million.

The prosecution, citing records from private banks, revealed that the Vice President and her husband, Atty. Manases Carpio, maintain some 30 active accounts in at least eight banks with a combined P190 million from the time she was elected vice president. Her defenders say the money was there all along, tucked under “other assets” but the explanation does not survive elementary math. Even a math flunker like this writer figured that out.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) told the impeachment court that the banks reported suspicious transactions involving the Duterte couple, categorized as possible graft involving flood control and infrastructure projects, malversation linked to confidential and intelligence funds, and drug trafficking. These are red flags that prompt a bank compliance officer to report to the agency. Agree, these are not hard evidence of criminal activity, but these are transactions that needed to be investigated by AMLC, especially when the account holder had declared zero cash in her SALN.

Then there’s the problematic involvement of Sammy Uy, the Davao businessman and close associate of the Duterte family tagged by self-confessed Davao Death Squad member Arturo Lascañas as a drug lord. The characterization has been dismissed by Uy’s friends, but the AMLC record has not been disputed: two checks from Uy and his associates in favor of the Vice President totaling P14.8 million between October 2011 and April 2012.

The AMLC also reported inward remittances from China to Calle 88 Foods Corp., a company linked to Carpio. On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with a food company receiving money from other countries. But with our strained relations with Beijing and intelligence reports of Chinese interference, millions coming from state-owned enterprises to a Duterte-linked food company and charitable foundation demand an explanation. Also crying for an explanation is the movement of P193 million from a joint account held by father and daughter into other accounts in the same bank.

The defense so, far, has not issued one, opting instead to badger the AMLC official on his credentials and request bathroom breaks.

I would propose a drinking game, one shot of your favorite poison per “excuse me, mister presiding officer.” At the rate the defense lawyers are going, the whole gallery would be hammered before the lunch recess.

This article also appears in Rappler.