Vice President Sara Duterte issued a formal statement on Thursday, April 23, dismissing the allegations of unexplained wealth that dominated her impeachment hearing a day earlier, insisting that every peso of her fortune is properly documented and declared.
“Lahat ng aking ari-arian at pera ay idineklara ko sa aking SALN. Ang bawat sentimo ay mula sa lehitimong pinanggalingan at may kaukulang dokumento,” Duterte said in the two-page pahayag released through the Office of the Vice President’s Facebook page under the “Mahalin Natin ang Pilipinas” party branding, dated April 23, 2026.
The statement came hours after the House Committee on Justice’s third impeachment hearing, where the Anti-Money Laundering Council told lawmakers it had found over P6.77 billion in covered and suspicious transactions connected to Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, spanning 2006 to 2025. The Office of the Ombudsman separately confirmed that Duterte’s SALNs from 2019 to 2024 declared zero cash on hand or bank deposits — a period during which her net worth nonetheless rose significantly.
Duterte trained much of her statement on former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who testified before the committee under subpoena. She framed his testimony as a recycled attack with new political backing. “For nearly a decade, Mr. Antonio Trillanes IV has been peddling the same incredible story about alleged billions in bank accounts. From 2016 to 2026, nothing in his narrative has changed. What has changed, however, is the machinery now backing him,” she wrote.
Trillanes, in his sworn affidavit, alleged that the Duterte family received P181.6 million in checks from Samuel “Sammy” Uy, a Davao businessman he described as an alleged drug lord and a major donor to Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016 presidential campaign. Of that amount, he said P14.8 million went directly to Sara Duterte in check transactions between October 2011 and April 2012, a figure the AMLC confirmed was reflected in bank records, though the council said it could not independently verify the identities behind the transactions.
In her response, Duterte did not address the specific figures or the AMLC findings directly. She instead questioned the political composition of those she said were aligned against her — citing a sitting president she alleged should submit to a drug test, House members she accused of receiving “maletas,” and “newly-installed AMLC officials” she said were staying silent on what she characterized as the absence of actual money laundering violations.
She also attributed the cascade of legal and institutional actions against her to political retaliation. “Hindi rin maikakaila ang timing ng lahat ng ito. Ang sunod-sunod na alegasyon at kaso laban sa akin ay nagsimula matapos akong umalis sa Gabinete, sa panahong tumanggi akong pumirma sa isang pambansang budget na hindi ko kayang ipagtanggol sa taumbayan,” she said.
Duterte was absent during the April 22 hearing — her third straight absence from the proceedings. House justice committee chair Rep. Gerville Luistro noted this pattern and challenged the vice president to appear before the panel to personally address the financial discrepancies. “If people do not want to speak, if the vice president does not want to face it, then let the numbers do the talking,” Luistro said.
One such number drawing particular scrutiny: a comparison between Duterte’s declared 2007 net worth of P7.25 million and her 2024 SALN figure of P88.51 million — a jump of over 1,100 percent across her years in public office.
Akbayan Rep. Jose Manuel Diokno told reporters the AMLC figures represented “a smoking gun, at least insofar as probable cause is concerned.” The justice committee has one more hearing scheduled — April 29 — before it is expected to produce a committee report ahead of the House plenary’s resumption on May 4.
