October 9, 2026

Atty. Alexander B. Cabrera, a lawyer and CPA appearing as a prosecution witness, said prosecutors engaged him for an Article II financial review. He worked pro bono in his personal capacity, independently and without promising a predetermined result. His report compared the spouses’ SALNs, bank accounts, tax records, AMLC reports, corporate filings and financial statements supplied by prosecutors.

Cabrera’s Table 39 calculated P190,628,012 for 2022, P167,337,227 for 2023, P264,217,123 for 2024 and P195,692,505 for 2025, totaling P817,874,867 in undeclared assets and income. He said each asset was counted once. In the closing clarification, he agreed that the aggregate undeclared amount should be added to the declared 2025 SALN amount. He concluded that the 2022–2025 SALNs were substantially understated, Duterte continued participating in businesses, and constitutional and other legal violations had occurred or might have occurred.

His asset analysis covered year-end bank cash, insurance policies, firearms, investments, business equity and other property. He identified about 17 insurance policies as undeclared in the SALN, including a 2024 policy bought with a P10.6 million single premium and a dollar policy paid with US$100,000. He discussed but excluded the Matina Crossing property from the computation and deducted declared property additions to avoid duplication.

For personal income reconciliation, Cabrera compared P63,106,886 in declared income with P174,959,235 in identified bank inflows and calculated P111,852,349 in undeclared income. He excluded loan proceeds, rolling time deposits, investment proceeds and transfers between savings and checking from the income calculation. He said his information did not cover cash outside banks or digital wallets; most dollar accounts were excluded, with some Cale88 dollar-account information included in the final computation.

Cabrera attributed corporate inflows using ownership percentages and his analysis of piercing the corporate veil. He reported average annual understatements of 69% for Metro City Chow, 51% for Cale88 and 87% for GenCorp. Metro City Chow’s GIS supplied a 20% Duterte interest; for GenCorp, whose GIS omitted her although her SALN listed a stockholding, he used a 20% sensitivity estimate based on accounting and SEC benchmarks and related corporate ownership and directorships. He described GenCorp’s 2025 financial statements as unreliable after a qualified audit opinion and separately calculated P193,951,442 in Chinese-company remittances to Cale88.

Cabrera flagged P11.35 million in checks payable to Lourdes Lebosada, Carpio’s Cale88 business partner, and P41 million in cash encashments and withdrawals through BDO and PNB within about an hour. He described earlier P96 million manager’s-check transactions in a joint account of Duterte and former President Rodrigo Duterte: checks remained undeposited until stale and funds returned to the account, which he characterized as a variation of check kiting that kept amounts out of year-end balances. He said P80 million subsequently funded four insurance payments and P16 million eventually went by check to Samuel Uy.

Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez, Chief of Staff in the Office of the BIR Commissioner and a prosecution witness, confirmed ongoing income-tax audits of Duterte and her husband and an existing Cale88 letter of authority. She reported P208,493,545 in Cale88 sales for 2021–2025. She described BIR-AMLC coordination, said supporting expenses and invoices would be checked in audit, and promised employee information. She read a management undertaking to support Cale88’s continuing operations and agreed that the large differences raised between GenCorp’s financial-statement cash and bank balances were a concern.

Garcia-Marquez read P82,327.45 in gross Davao City compensation on Duterte’s Form 2316. She clarified that it concerned taxable year 2023, filed April 11, 2024, and could not specify the payment’s basis beyond gross compensation. On Cale88’s share transfer, she distinguished contractual validity from unpaid taxes and said required tax payment should precede registration in the stock-transfer books.

The sitting began with senator-judge questions to Garcia-Marquez about tax audits, company operations, cash disclosures and share-transfer records. The chair directed requested BIR submissions through the Clerk of Court for senators and both parties, excused her and directed exhibit marking at the appropriate time.

After argument over Cabrera’s access to records and screen-display rules, Diokno presented his qualifications, engagement and report, then examined the financial comparisons and computations. The chair called a five-minute recess during the report presentation.

Diokno completed direct examination after Cabrera read his conclusions. Clarifications from senators and the chair addressed how the yearly amounts related to the P817 million aggregate, before cross-examination was scheduled for the next sitting.

Sen. Erwin Tulfo asked about the ongoing income-tax audit of Duterte and her husband and Cale88’s registration and funding beyond export sales. Garcia-Marquez confirmed the audit and said Cale88 registered with the BIR on October 15, 2021; the records she consulted described banana-chip exports and supplied no other source or explanation linking the company’s name to Carpio and Lebosada. Later, Tulfo proposed moving beyond Cabrera’s lengthy qualification testimony to substantive questions. The chair directed Diokno to wind up, and Diokno said he had no further qualification questions.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros contrasted Cale88's P208,493,545 in reported 2021–2025 sales with P776 million in AMLC-reported inflows and asked how the BIR could investigate them. Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez, Chief of Staff in the Office of the BIR Commissioner and prosecution witness, said bank records were outside the normal audit checklist because of bank secrecy, but could be submitted voluntarily, and the BIR coordinated with the AMLC. Hontiveros said her office linked Ukrainian remitter Arkmen LLC to fraud and money-laundering proceedings opened on May 19, 2025 concerning €1.225 million, followed by search and shareholding-freeze orders in 2026; she noted a May 30, 2025 remittance to Cale88 after proceedings began. Asked whether legitimate remittances representing sales should be reported and taxed, Garcia-Marquez said sales should appear in the annual income-tax return and undertook to note the issue. In her second round, Hontiveros asked about inclusion of the remittances in the Run After Tax Evaders program and whether Carpio could remain Cale88's owner in BIR records without an eCAR for the transfer to Pikimong. Garcia-Marquez said both were possible. Hontiveros also pointed to Cale88's continued listing as a business interest in Duterte's 2025 SALN. Later, she requested complete AMLC covered- and suspicious-transaction reports for Cale88 and GenCorp, including inflows and outflows; the chair directed the Clerk of Court to supply her office and other requesting senator-judges.

Sen. Raffy T. Tulfo asked about Duterte's Davao City compensation and described it as payment for legal activities, a characterization prosecution counsel Atty. Erwin G. Matib affirmed. Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez read PHP 82,327.45 in gross compensation from Form 2316, described it as salary rather than legal fees, initially referred to her service as mayor, then said she could identify only what the form stated. Tulfo asked about Article VII, Section 13; Garcia-Marquez recalled restrictions on professional practice and government contracts and agreed with his description of a bar on outside employment and double compensation. Tulfo also criticized Duterte's advisers, recalled her alleged failure to divest business interests and accused those around her of ignoring constitutional restrictions. In the ensuing clarification, Garcia-Marquez said the entry concerned taxable year 2023 and was filed on April 11, 2024. Defense counsel Atty. Michael Wesley Poa said the defense would explain it through a relevant witness supported by documents during its evidence presentation.

Sen. Francis "Chiz" G. Escudero clarified the Davao compensation record: Garcia-Marquez said it concerned taxable year 2023 and was filed on April 11, 2024. He asked Cabrera to read Carpio’s year-end bank balances for 2022–2025, which the witness gave as P41.55 million, P49.20 million, P13.43 million and P28.41 million. Escudero also described Cabrera’s corporate-veil analysis as looking past the corporation’s separate personality to its stockholders; Cabrera agreed. Asking what the P817,874,867 total represented, Escudero elicited Cabrera’s explanation that assets were counted once and the total combined undeclared increases with inflows through 2025. In the closing clarification, he described successive yearly amounts as additions culminating in the P817 million undeclared total for 2025.

Sen. Joel Villanueva questioned Cale88's roughly PHP 150-million sales alongside its PHP 6.13-million loss, the funding of continuing operations, and the workforce behind its labor costs. Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez identified PHP 11.43 million in operating expenses; in the second round she read the financial-statement note that management had undertaken continuing financial support. Villanueva cited GIS filings with no employees listed in 2023-2024 and two in 2025, asking how such staffing supported the operations. Garcia-Marquez said two workers appeared insufficient unless machinery was used, identified PHP 1,227,042 in 2024 salaries and wages, and undertook to submit records, including the alphalist. Asked whether foreign dealings matched invoices, shipping records and logistics costs, she said she had no supporting invoices with her and the ongoing audit would check them. Villanueva then sought a breakdown of Manases Carpio's PHP 11.20-million taxable business income and his share of Carpio Lawyers' PHP 5.24-million net income, distinguishing partnership income from his personal distributive share. Garcia-Marquez identified law-firm and restaurant sources, said the partnership statements showed no distribution, and agreed any distributed share should enter his annual return. On linking 888 Bistro's books and withholding records to Carpio's return, she said the documents showed the two sources but no reconciliation reference.

Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan requested the spouses' tax returns and GenCorp financial statements, then questioned discrepancies between cash in the tax attachments and the SALN. Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez confirmed cash of PHP 21.23 million, PHP 28.97 million, PHP 15.53 million and PHP 13.80 million for 2022-2025, clarified that these appeared in the audited financial statements, and said unreconciled cash could be treated as income unless substantiated, potentially leading to deficiency taxes. Pangilinan also questioned how Cale88's roughly PHP 1.2-million annual payroll supported the scale of sales and Chinese inflows he cited; Garcia-Marquez said this would be checked in the audit. In his second round, he contrasted GenCorp's reported cash of PHP 924,695 in 2023 and PHP 683,838 in 2024 with bank balances he cited of PHP 46.19 million and PHP 19.11 million. Garcia-Marquez said the 2023 discrepancy appeared to show an untruthful declaration and agreed that the 2024 gap was concerning. Pangilinan questioned how Pikimong, with PHP 59,836 in assets and PHP 62,500 paid-up capital, could purchase 95% of Cale88, and proposed raising in camera whether to obtain its GIS and related records; Garcia-Marquez took note without explaining the acquisition.

Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian asked whether unpaid transfer taxes and the absence of an eCAR left Cale88 in its former owners’ names. Garcia-Marquez distinguished contractual validity from tax obligations, then said a transfer should not be entered in the stock-transfer books without tax payment, leaving the old names in those records. On Cale88’s roughly P700 million in reported inflows against P208 million in declared sales, she identified loans or donations as possible explanations, said cash movements belonged in the financial statements, and confirmed an existing letter of authority for audit; underdeclared sales could generate deficiency taxes, with criminal proceedings if tax evasion were proven. In his later clarification, Gatchalian asked whether Cabrera’s P817 million undeclared total should appear in Duterte’s 2025 SALN. Cabrera agreed and said the yearly underdeclarations should also appear in the corresponding yearly SALNs.

Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson sought to reconcile GenCorp's P520,670,643 in 2025 sales, P5,342,953 taxable net income, P2,285,418 tax due, about P1.5 million in tax credits and P777,093 paid, and questioned its P5 million authorized capital against those sales. Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez, Chief of Staff in the Office of the BIR Commissioner and prosecution witness, said high sales were possible despite small authorized capital and explained the 2% minimum corporate income tax on gross income after cost of goods sold, payable when higher than regular income tax. Reading a difficult-to-decipher copy, she cited roughly P406 million in cost of sales, P114 million in gross income, P108 million in itemized deductions and a minimum tax of about P2.28 million; the payment reconciliation remained unfinished. In his second round, Lacson contrasted Cale88's roughly P208 million in four-year sales with P8 million in taxable losses, including P150.7 million in 2024 sales and a P6.128 million loss. Garcia-Marquez said losses reflected higher claimed expenses and the audit would check possible overstated expenses or understated sales. During Cabrera's testimony, Lacson observed that cross-examination could expose weaknesses in the expert's opinions and affect his credibility; the chair responded by reading Rule 133, Section 5 on weighing expert opinion. Later, Lacson expressed hope that the defense could match the sensitivity of Cabrera's analysis; that observation received no direct response.

Sen. Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino asked whether Cabrera's roughly P817 million calculation represented Duterte's net worth, which year it covered and whether amounts were repeatedly carried forward. Atty. Alexander B. Cabrera, a lawyer and CPA appearing as a prosecution witness, said the figure represented undeclared wealth, to which the declared 2025 SALN amount should be added. He explained that an asset was counted once even if omitted from successive SALNs, so his computation contained no duplicate carryovers. Aquino restated that the P817 million plus the amount declared for 2025 would be the net worth under Cabrera's report, and Cabrera agreed.

Rep. Jose Manuel “Chel” I. Diokno offered Cabrera as an expert to reconcile the financial records and support the prosecution’s claims of substantial SALN underreporting, continuing business participation and repeated constitutional and other legal violations. He said prosecutors engaged Cabrera and supplied records obtained through court subpoenas for his analysis.

Diokno defended questions using the witness’s undeclared-cash description and his professional opinion, saying the bank-to-SALN comparison supplied the basis and the defense could test it on cross. He asked whether the aggregate contained double counting; Cabrera said his method avoided duplication.

Lead defense counsel Atty. Sheila C. Sison challenged Cabrera’s authority to receive protected records without a subpoena to him. She maintained a continuing disclosure objection and argued that the July 29 executive memorandum authorized inspection and submission to the court, rather than sharing with a third party.

Atty. Kristine R. Ferrer sought restrictions on displaying tax, SALN, bank and AMLC documents and objected to incompletely redacted identifiers. She challenged conclusory headings, requested alleged wording for the cash figures, objected to an opinion about Duterte’s state of mind, and moved to strike scheme while proposing check kiting instead of tinikling.

Atty. Michael Wesley Poa said a defense witness and records would explain the Davao compensation entry during the defense presentation. At adjournment, Sison sought assurance of Cabrera’s attendance for cross before his planned three-week European trip beginning October 13, and asked which witnesses would follow him.

Presiding Officer Sen. Francis "Chiz" G. Escudero clarified that no special subpoena had directed documents to Cabrera: records were subpoenaed for the court and furnished to the parties. He expected the prosecution to establish their chain of custody on direct and allowed legally obtained records to be supplied to experts under existing limited-access conditions, with the same treatment for a defense expert.

The chair allowed Cabrera’s own tables and summaries to be displayed while requiring source BIR, bank and AMLC material to show relevant entries with the remainder obscured. He repeatedly directed account-number redaction and required SALN personal details to be redacted. The objection to the manager’s-check display was partly sustained for account-number redaction.

The chair overruled the demand for alleged wording because counsel was reading the witness’s table, and overruled the competence objection to expert opinion. He stated that the opinion’s weight remained for each senator-judge and read Rule 133, Section 5 criteria concerning data, methods and their application.

The chair partly sustained the heading objection after noting that unexplained wealth was absent from the table; Diokno agreed to show the actual report. During the redacted-check presentation, the chair said there was no need to flash names or checks after the point had been made. He sustained the motion to strike scheme when it was not in the report, but allowed tinikling as descriptive of the reported behavior.

The chair directed the Clerk to furnish complete Cale88 and GenCorp AMLC transaction reports to Sen. Risa Hontiveros and other requesting senators. He set Cabrera’s cross for Monday and relied on prosecutors’ undertaking to produce him without subpoena, leaving the hypothetical consequence of nonappearance for later. Trial was adjourned to October 12 at 10 a.m.

Cabrera’s direct examination had ended and his cross-examination remained for Monday, October 12, at 10 a.m. Prosecutors undertook to return him without a subpoena; Diokno identified him as their last case-in-chief witness. The chair deferred a remedy for any future nonappearance and told the defense that Cabrera would be the only witness on Monday.

Garcia-Marquez’s requested employee and supporting-record submissions remained to be supplied through the Clerk of Court. Poa reserved the defense’s explanation of the Davao compensation entry for its own witness and records during defense evidence.