Official financial intelligence documents show Vice President Sara Duterte is a billionaire — a finding a Manila congressman says is no longer a matter of allegation but of government record.
Rep. Joel Chua of Manila’s 3rd district cited Anti-Money Laundering Council records as the basis for the claim, stressing that the scale and regularity of transactions documented cannot be dismissed.
“The truth has been revealed, our Vice President is a billionaire. It is an undisputed fact – not based on mere testimony, but on official documents and government records that, until now, have remained beyond public scrutiny,” Chua said.
The lawyer pressed a pointed question he said the Vice President has yet to answer: where the money came from, and why it kept coming.
“The only question that must be answered is simple but fundamental: who gave her money of this magnitude, and why was she receiving such amounts regularly?” he said.
Chua also drew attention to what he described as a stark disconnect between the AMLC findings and Duterte’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth — documents that, he noted, showed no trace of the billions reflected in financial intelligence records.
“Why were these billions hidden? Why is it not included in the SALN? Why do they insist that they have nothing?” Chua said.
He moved to pre-empt any defense rooted in legitimate business income, pointing to Securities and Exchange Commission records he said expose the weakness of that argument.
“If they will say that it came from business, the records of the Securities and Exchange Commission are very clear how many companies are tied to them that are bankrupt or are not earning at the level that can explain the billions of pesos of money flow,” Chua said.
Chua identified Bureau of Internal Revenue tax records as the next layer of scrutiny, arguing that declared income must match the financial activity the AMLC has documented.
“If they earned billions in business or law firms, the tax filings must be clear. If the income and taxes are not proportionate, clearly there is a problem. At this point, the matter transcends politics. This is about accountability under the law,” he said.
Duterte’s legal team, for its part, challenged the foundation of the House proceedings. Lawyer Sheila Sison argued that the AMLC report and documents raised during committee hearings fall outside the two impeachment complaints formally filed against the Vice President.
Sison also indicated the committee’s actions may bear on a petition already pending before the Supreme Court, though she stopped short of announcing fresh legal action.
