Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV was present during this week’s Senate impeachment hearings, as he was previously listed as one of the witnesses. Photo by Wendell D. Alinea / Senate Social Media Unit.
Manuel Mogato | October 2, 2026
MANILA — A former senator on Friday accused Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband of receiving about 450 million pesos from the Chinese government and private companies, a potential national security breach.
Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Philippine Navy lieutenant and two-term senator, said the Chinese government and corporations sent money to Duterte’s husband’s food company and to her foundation.
Trillanes said the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) traced these funds, and they are among the evidence to be presented to the Senate impeachment court next week. (Also read: Vice President fails to disclose property ownership in statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth)
He was supposed to take the witness stand in the Senate impeachment court, but he requested the prosecution to drop him as a witness.
Instead, Trillanes held a news conference to reveal what he could have testified in the impeachment case.
In the news conference, he said the vice president’s husband’s Cale88 food company got an estimated 319 million pesos from the Chinese government.
The vice president and her husband listed Cale88 as among the couple’s business interests in the annual statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN).
“There are national security implications, and that’s prohibited,” Trillanes told journalists. “You’d be shocked by this. She is the Vice President. You cannot accept [something] from a foreign government, especially [if you are] a high-ranking official.”
However, Trillanes did not provide documentary evidence for his allegations. He said the transactions might be taken during the trial next week.
Trillanes said there were “red flags” in Cale88’s operations, such as a low monthly electricity bill and meager cash balance despite millions of pesos in sales.
China also donated 150 million pesos to “Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines”, an entity whose board of trustees purportedly includes the Vice President and Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano, wife of trial senator-judge Alan Peter Cayetano.
Trillanes also said a certain Ang Hai Peng was listed in the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a shareholder of Timesquare Bee Foods and later Gencorp Industries Inc. Ang has no birth, marriage, or death certificates, no tax identification number, and no passport.
But his name vanished from SEC records and was replaced by the new controlling entity JTC Group of Companies, owned by the Dutertes’ long-time friend and business associate, Jaime T. Cruz.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte had appointed Cruz as special envoy to China during his term.
Trillanes said the Vice President also failed to disclose her time deposits in the SALN, which grew from 53 million pesos in 2007 to 94 million pesos in 2009.
In the SALN, she reported only two million pesos in her bank accounts. (Also read: Vice President received cash, chocolates, and cars as gifts)
During the news conference, Trillanes showed video clips of a former police officer who admitted membership in the Davao Death Squad, claiming he had killed more than 300 persons in a period of 20 years.
Trilanes also accused the Duterte family of receiving more than 180 million pesos from businessman Sammy Uy, whom he described as an alleged drug lord.