Financial forensic expert, Lawyer Alexander Cabrera, testifying before the Senate impeachment court on Monday, October 12. Photo by Wendell Alinea/Senate Social Media Unit.
Manuel Mogato | October 13, 2026
MANILA — A financial forensic expert told the Senate impeachment court the Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband’s financial transactions showed “symptoms” of money laundering.
Taking the witness stand, Lawyer Alexander Cabrera, who had 37 years of experience in forensic accounting, said it was unusual for Duterte’s husband, Manases Carpio’s food company to receive millions of pesos in remittances from foreign companies only to disappear in the company’s bank accounts in a day or two.
‘It appears the money was only passing through,” Cabrera said, adding the company, Cale88, has a small paid up capital but was raking up sales that were never reported in annual financial report and in tax payments.
Moreover, the banana chips exporting company also has no raw materials inventory, no payables, no manpower, and lower power consumption.
“These are symptoms of money laundering operations,” he concluded after Cale88 got 319 million pesos remittances, converted from foreign currency from several China-based and Hong Kong companies, including state-owned firms.
President Ferdinand Marcos has raised the remittances as red flags, describing the vice president’s involvement in the illegal activities as a “national security threats”
Duterte defended herself, saying the accusations were politically-motivated because Marcos was preventing her from seeking the presidency in 2028.
Cabrera said the vice president has an undeclared 817.87 million pesos in her 2025 statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) based on his analysis of Duterte’s tax, banks, insurance, and financial records, including reports from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
However, if the 612 million pesos in confidential and intelligence funds, which Duterte would not explain where the money went, would be included, the vice president’s unexplained wealth could shoot up to more than 1 billion pesos.
Duterte’s defense lawyers protested Cabrera’s report and described it as “erroneous”.
They will start presenting witnesses and documents next month when the trial resumed, giving way to the Senate’s deliberations of the 2027 budget.
Cabrera is the last prosecution witness, connecting dots after officials and records from banks and insurance were presented. Officials from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and AMLC also testified in the impeachment court.