Gonzales identified four AUB accounts, two active, and read annual ending balances for accounts ending 4387 and 0301. Account 4387 closed in 2025 with a zero year-end balance.
Witness record
October 7, 2026
Witnesses called to the stand, with their most consequential testimony linked to the reviewed transcript and official Senate video.
Witnesses
Read and verify
Click a timestamp to cue the embedded source video. The adjacent turn ID opens the reviewed transcript in context.
Arcy James Gonzales
Branch Manager, Asia United Bank Davao Toril Branch; prosecution witness
He described accounts under Carpio's name, including one with another person whose identity was not established in the exchange.
Irene Joy Cadiente Ishida
Head of Branch Operations Department, Philippine Savings Bank; prosecution witness
Ishida identified PSBank account ending 3853 in Sara Zimmerman Duterte's name and account ending 2107 in Manases Reyes Carpio's name.
She supplied separate annual ending balances for 2022-2025. These were balances at each year-end; the court permitted within-year arithmetic but prohibited adding ending balances across different years.
Atty. Niña Feren Alquiroz-Aguilar
Head of Anti-Money Laundering Division, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company; prosecution witness
Alquiroz-Aguilar described subpoenaed Metrobank records for six current and savings accounts, including accounts for the children.
She explained negative-media review and potential suspicious-transaction reports requiring her approval, together with enhanced due diligence and source-and-purpose documentation.
She had not experienced the cited reporting error during her tenure and said an amended covered-transaction report would be filed if needed.
Leslie Y. Cham
Head of Branch Banking Group, Security Bank; prosecution witness
Cham said Sara Duterte had no Security Bank account. He separately described Cale88's two checking accounts and GenCorp's eight peso accounts and their annual ending balances.
He distinguished annual transaction amounts from ending balances, initially lacking day-to-day figures and the cited PHP40 million details.
He declined CTR/STR disclosure and lacked details to determine whether disputed remittances were returned. He said questionable transactions go to compliance.
He explained that the reference containing J was a customer identifier, distinct from an account number and capable of covering multiple accounts.
Marwin L. Galvez
Division Head for Central Metro Manila Branches, Bank of the Philippine Islands; prosecution witness
Galvez testified from subpoenaed BPI records covering peso accounts and specified companies for 2007-2025, rather than personal handling of the accounts. He reported seven active deposit accounts and addressed credit cards separately.
He explained time-deposit rollovers and matured proceeds of about PHP41.72 million. Settlement account 9539 was named Rodrigo Roa Duterte or Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Sara Z. Duterte. A separate instruction directed PHP20 million to BPI-Philam's settlement account for peso plans.
Buying a funded manager's check debits the customer's account into the bank's settlement account, removing the amount from the customer's visible balance. Returning funds requires the original unused check; if the purchaser's account has closed, a new receiving account is required.
He distinguished joint-and accounts requiring all named holders' signatures from or accounts permitting one holder to act. For the account examined, Rodrigo Duterte's signature was necessary and Sara Duterte's alone could not operate it. Both signed KYC records; the chair reported no Vice President signature on the submitted account-9539 transaction documents, distinguishing those from opening and KYC records.
Galvez lacked personal knowledge of Sara Duterte transacting on Carpio's individual account and could not determine her knowledge of joint-account transactions. Returned unused checks were not uncommon, but he could not explain clients' purposes or confirm deliberate year-end concealment; he also could not infer a deposit's source or identify an ultimate check payee without checking records.
He could not authenticate the defense reply letter's signature or letterhead and was not involved in BPI's AMLC reporting process, so could not explain the corrected reporting error. The court required a proper authentication witness for the letter.
Julius Palma Parian
Branch Manager, Philippine National Bank Davao San Pedro–CM Recto Branch; prosecution witness
Parian presented four PNB accounts and annual ending balances. On cross-examination, he agreed Sara Duterte had no PNB account and the accounts and transactions discussed were Carpio's individual accounts.
He identified four August 6, 2024 withdrawals of PHP5 million, PHP3 million, PHP5 million and PHP5 million, totaling PHP18 million.
Mario Cerilo M. De Mesa Jr.
Senior Assistant Vice President, BDO Branch Banking Group, Branch Regulatory Support; prosecution witness
De Mesa presented separate Carpio, Sara Duterte and joint-account records, including deposit and investment products, and annual balances per account. He also supplied Cale88's annual BDO balances separately.
He identified a PHP8 million debit transferred to Carpio's current account.
The displayed summed totals were prosecution calculations, which he could not confirm as a bank sum. He needed specific records to answer questions about two checks and could not recall every submitted document.
He described customer identification, source-of-funds and business checks, but said outgoing cash or check destinations were not routinely followed in the manner asked.
Atty. Juan Sotero Roman
Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, FWD Life Insurance Corporation; prosecution witness
Roman authenticated FWD records for Carpio's May 16, 2024 policy, distinguishing the PHP10.6 million premium paid from the PHP13.25 million sum assured.
Investment-linked withdrawal value varies with market performance and surrender charges; full surrender terminates life coverage. A future death benefit is distinct from presently claimable policy value.
He described application-based source-of-funds checks and suspicious-transaction indicators, distinguishing the insurer's reporting duty from a judicial determination of money laundering.
Malu Remollino Salanguit
Head of Manage and Review Value Stream, Manulife Philippines; prosecution witness
Salanguit authenticated Manulife contracts and receipts and distinguished policy owner from insured. She described single-pay premiums, top-ups and regular-pay records for Duterte and Carpio policies.
She corrected a spoken PHP538,000 total to PHP528,000, comprising a PHP400,000 initial payment and PHP128,000 top-up.
Atty. Calvin Kohchet-Chua
Chief Legal, Government Relations, and Sustainability Officer, Pru Life Insurance Corporation of U.K.; prosecution witness
Kohchet-Chua initially described ten Pru Life policies: two for Sara Duterte, three for Carpio and five owned by a relative. After he confirmed the additional owners were not dependents, the court limited presentation to the five respondent-and-spouse policies.
He distinguished sum assured from premiums paid and gave PHP1.2 million in premiums for the policy under discussion.
On cross-examination, he confirmed the Carpio policy documents lacked the Vice President's signature but could not answer whether she knew of those policies.
Christine Cabradilla
Policy Changes Head, AIA Philippines; prosecution witness
Cabradilla authenticated AIA records for Carpio's February 13, 2013 policy with a single US$30,000 premium.
She explained that unit-linked dollar withdrawals require fund execution before payout. The policy owner signed; signatures of the spouse, beneficiary and trustee were not required.
Hygeia C. Defensor
Policy Management Head, Allianz PNB Life Insurance; prosecution witness
Defensor authenticated two Carpio dollar policies effective May 3 and October 6, 2021, with cash premiums of US$11,700 and US$100,000.
Surrender proceeds depend on fund value rather than equaling premiums. These policies had no surrender charge; source-of-income checks included a law-office ITR.
Spousal signatures and notification about premiums or surrender were not required, even where the spouse was a beneficiary. Proceeds went to the owner; their subsequent use was unknown to the insurer.
Joel L. De Jesus
Vice President and Head of Customer Support Services - Individual Life, BDO Life Assurance Company, Inc.; prosecution witness
De Jesus identified two Sara Duterte policies and one Carpio policy. The two 2014 policies had five-year payment periods, with annual premiums of PHP100,000 and PHP103,160, totaling PHP500,000 and about PHP515,000.
The two current policies were variable or investment-linked. Carpio's December 15, 2008 policy lapsed after four quarterly payments; De Jesus said no fixed industry norm governed the number of policies.
Janet D. Amora
Vice President, Operations Head, BDO Securities Corporation; prosecution witness
Amora authenticated BDO Securities trade and settlement records, distinguishing equities from bonds, purchases from redemptions, and acquisition cost from year-end market valuation.
She identified a PHP5 million Arthaland IPO purchase and reported about PHP12.945 million in equity purchases and PHP22.5 million in bond subscriptions over 2020-2025. After redemptions, outstanding bonds were PHP12 million; she described equities as about PHP13 million and the combined year-end 2025 position as PHP25 million.
The securities account was solely Carpio's, notices went to him and documents lacked the Vice President's signature. Amora could not say whether the Vice President knew of the investments. Her cross-examination concluded with no redirect and she was excused.
Edeli Umayam
Branch Manager, Asia United Bank Davao Tagum Branch; excused prosecution witness
Umayam answered the chair when addressed and was excused without continuing testimony after the prosecution dispensed with the planned authentication examination.