Confidential bank documents long shielded from the House inquiry will finally come under scrutiny when the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte gets underway, according to the prosecution’s lead counsel.
Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro told radio dzBB on Friday, May 29, that her team intends to file a motion compelling banks to turn over records tied to Duterte and to put bank officers on the stand—steps the chamber never took during its committee proceedings. She framed the earlier caution as deliberate. “We took the safer, conservative route because we are aware of the confidentiality provisions of the Bank Secrecy Law,” Luistro said, pointing to the carve-out that lifts absolute secrecy on bank records when impeachment is involved.
The prosecution is confident the Senate sitting as an impeachment court will grant the request once proceedings open. “This will be the first time that we will be able to see the bank documents and the bank officials’ testimony, and we are positive that the Senate impeachment court will be considering our motion for the issuance of a subpoena. I believe there are no more debates. There are no more issues because this is already the impeachment trial,” she said.
The financial trail figured prominently in the House hearings. Anti-Money Laundering Council executive director Ronel Buenaventura placed P6.7 billion in covered and suspicious transactions linked to the Vice President and her husband, Manases Carpio, across the years 2006 to 2025. Separately, the couple’s sworn asset declarations to the ombudsman listed neither cash on hand nor bank deposits for the period spanning 2019 through 2024.
Roughly 25 individuals are slated to testify, a roster that the prosecution expects to include witnesses whose sympathies lie with the defense. Luistro said several work within the Department of Education and the Office of the Vice President and remain “very much attached” to Duterte. “That is why we call them or they are considered, under the rules of evidence, as hostile witnesses. We expect their loyalty to be with the Vice President, and so we need to present as a hostile witness,” she explained.
Removing Duterte from office demands the votes of at least 16 of the 24 senators acting as judges, a verdict that would also bar her permanently from any future government post. The charges approved by the House span culpable violation of the Constitution, graft, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes, rooted in allegations of misused confidential funds, wealth she has not accounted for, and threats directed at ranking officials.
