Vice President Sara Duterte and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, concealed ₱96 million in joint time deposit accounts they opened in 2011 by “floating” their bank transactions for two to three years, according to documents presented by House prosecutors.
But the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) time deposit accounts under their names at its branch on Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City, sounded oddly familiar. One of the payees of a manager’s check drawn from these accounts was Samuel C. Uy, private prosecutor James Bryan Ibrahim Alih told the Senate impeachment court.
In 2016, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV claimed that then President Duterte had kept over ₱200 million in deposits at BPI-Julia Vargas branch and that his account received payouts from Uy, a Davao businessman whom he alleged to be a drug lord.
The elder Duterte had denied Trillanes’ allegations, including the existence of a joint bank account with his daughter.
Alih presented Uy’s manager’s check dated May 30, 2016, amounting to ₱16.8 million on Day 35 of the Vice President’s impeachment trial for alleged unexplained wealth on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
‘Pattern of concealment’
The prosecution team’s efforts to establish “a pattern of concealment” of these bank accounts after Senator-judge Panfilo Lacson said he was guessing they were doing so.
Several managers from eight banks, who were present, confirmed that the Vice President and her husband, Manases Carpio, had over 30 bank accounts with an ending balance of over ₱190 million from 2022 to 2025.
The prosecution earlier said Duterte did not declare the bank accounts in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs), as proof of its allegation that the Vice President amassed unexplained wealth.
On Wednesday, Alih zoomed in on the BPI-Julia Vargas accounts of the Dutertes by asking the witness, BPI Central Manila Division head Marwin Galvez, about them.
Defense lawyer Michael Poa objected to Alih’s pursuit of the “alleged” joint bank account, saying it went back to 2011 when Duterte was not yet vice president. At that time, Duterte was serving as Davao City mayor.
Court presiding officer Francis Escudero allowed Alih to continue to ask about the BPI peso time deposit accounts.
Galvez said the Dutertes opened the accounts on Jan. 22, 2010, with an initial principal amount of ₱40.6 million. The time deposits were renewed or rolled over 12 times and grew to ₱41.7 million as of Feb.11, 2011, he said.
Manager’s checks
The deposits were used to purchase a manager’s check on March 9, 2016, amounting to ₱41.7 million via a BPI account ending 9539, according to Alih. He said the check was “not utilized” though it was valid for six months.
On Oct. 20, 2011, another manager’s check was purchased bearing the same amount. This continued every six months: April 2012, October 2012, April 2013, and October 2013.
Poa asked about the relevance of Galvez’s testimony on the manager’s checks, which Escudero echoed. Lacson chimed in and asked Alih if the prosecution was establishing a “pattern of concealment” of the ₱41 million.
“The point is eventually the manager’s checks are purchased so that the money cannot show up in the year-end balance in the bank because it’s floating,” Alih said.
The private prosecutor said a similar time deposit amounting to ₱55 million was “simultaneously” doing the same thing, as he explained that the Dutertes’ time deposit accounts actually totaled ₱96 million.
Senator-judge Bam Aquino asked whether this was a “scheme” to keep one’s money in the bank, but Galvez said this was “not uncommon.”
Asked who paid for the April 19, 2011, manager’s check, Alih said the payee was the former president.
‘Tinikling’
Senator-judge Vicente Sotto III said a banker friend told him that “the issuance of a manager’s check that does not end up being utilized after Dec. 31 and then returned to the original account is termed as “tinikling.” He added: “That is what people who are avoiding things do.”
Tinikling is a traditional Philippine folk dance in which dancers hop and skip in rhythm between two long clapping bamboo poles to avoid getting their feet caught.
Poa told the impeachment court that he wrote BPI about the joint accounts because the Vice President “had no recollection of this account” or making such transactions. “The Vice President did not sign all these time deposits and transactions, and all were done by the former president,” he said.
Asked by Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros whether Duterte was pointing the blame to her father, Poa said: “What she is saying is that she has no participation here. I don’t want to prejudice the president and his legal counsels for any legal defense they may have on these accounts.”
Upon checking the BPI documents submitted to the impeachment court, Escudero said the Vice President’s signature “does not appear in any of the transaction documents, such as the opening and closing of the time deposit and the purchase of manager’s checks.”
Public prosecutor and Rep. Lordan Suan presented insurance officials to show that Duterte did not declare in her SALN million-peso insurance-investment policies that she paid for her, Carpio, and other dependents from 2022 to 2025.
For instance, Suan said Carpio bought ₱10.6 million in lump-sum insurance-investment policies from FWD Life Insurance Corp. “The acquisition cost of Carpio’s insurance was more than three times what (Duterte) declared for him in her 2022 SALN,” he said. CS
Read more: Senator-judges puzzled by Duterte couple’s bank records
