A complaint targeting lawmakers and financial regulators for exposing the bank records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband should be thrown out, according to prosecutors in Quezon City who found the officials acted squarely within their government duties.
The recommendation, laid out in a 23-page resolution, hinges on the finding that none of the accused stepped outside their official roles. Prosecutors described the conduct in question as carrying no inherent immorality.
“The issuance of a subpoena for the production of AMLC reports, the manifestations made during the impeachment proceedings against the Vice-President of the Republic of the Philippines, and the compliance with the subpoena — these acts were done by the respondents, public officers with Salary Grade 28 and higher, in relation to their office,” the resolution stated. It went on: “By no stretch of the imagination could we rule that these acts of the respondents were done in their private capacity.”
That jurisdictional conclusion is precisely what Atty. Manases Carpio’s legal team intends to use as a springboard. His counsel, Atty. Peter Paul Danao, signaled Wednesday that the case may be brought instead before the Ombudsman — the very venue the resolution flagged as appropriate.
“We acknowledge the September 7, 2026 Resolution of the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office. We are still awaiting and will carefully review the official copy of the Resolution,” Danao said. He added: “Once received, our client reserves the right to exhaust all available legal remedies to challenge the Resolution, consistent with his right to seek appropriate relief under the law and existing rules. At the very least, our client retains the option to refile the complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman, which the Resolution itself identifies as the proper forum based on its jurisdictional finding.”
Danao argued that financial information this sensitive warrants a thorough examination on its substance by whichever body properly holds authority over it.
Carpio built his case around three statutes he says were breached: the Bank Secrecy Law, the Data Privacy Act, and the Anti-Money Laundering Act, as amended. He lodged the original filing with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office in April and returned in July with a supplemental complaint.
The roster of accused lawmakers is extensive. It covers House Justice panel chair Gerville Luistro, House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Leila de Lima, and House Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio, alongside Akbayan Party-List Representatives Percival Cendaña and Chel Diokno, Kabataan Party-list Representative Renee Co, Manila 3rd District Representative Joel Chua, and Bicol Saro Party-list Representative Terry Ridon.
Financial regulators were swept in as well: Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona Jr., Insurance Commissioner Reynaldo Regalado, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairperson Francisco Ed Lim, and Anti–Money Laundering Council Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura.
Throughout the dispute, Carpio has maintained that questions over who authorized the release of the couple’s income tax records belong in the courts, a position he has held even while cooperating with the directives of the Senate impeachment court. The Vice President herself remains under impeachment, answering to allegations that span culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust, bribery, and other high crimes.
