A bank error — not fabricated figures — accounts for the disputed P2 billion inflow attributed to Second Gentleman Manases Carpio in financial records presented during the House impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte, according to Carpio’s legal counsel.
Atty. Peter Paul Danao said the Bank of the Philippine Islands had flagged the inflated figure as the product of a systems glitch, and that the correct amount should have been P2 million — a difference of three orders of magnitude.
“Kung titingnan niyo po ‘yung report, na nakuha rin namin sa social media, kung bubusisiin niyo po ‘yung report na ‘yun, meron po do’n nakalagay sa bandang dulo na may P2 billion do’n na sinabi ng BPI [ay] system glitch,” Danao told reporters at a news conference Monday.
“Nagkamali po ang BPI. Hindi dapat P2 billion ang andoon, nasa amount na ‘yun,” he added.
Danao contended that the error and the bank’s own acknowledgment of it were not made prominent during the committee hearings. He described the figure that received the most attention — over P6 billion in total transactions — as a falsehood.
Reporting on the GMA News program “24 Oras,” journalist Jonathan Andal said a copy of the Anti-Money Laundering Council report submitted to the House Committee on Justice showed that BPI was retracting data on 13 covered transactions linked to Carpio, citing the systems bug as the reason.
Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, who sits on the House justice committee, rejected Danao’s claim that the glitch was withheld from public view. Ridon maintained the information had in fact been included in the report.
BPI, for its part, declined to engage with the specific allegations, citing its obligations under bank secrecy laws. “As a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)-supervised institution, Bank of the Philippine Islands adheres strictly to all applicable laws and regulations, including those governing bank secrecy, data privacy, and consumer protection,” the bank said in a statement.
The bank added that it “complies with required reporting and regulatory engagements through the proper authorities, and provides relevant clarifications when necessary,” but stopped short of confirming or denying details of the AMLC report.
