Vice President Sara Duterte held a press conference on Tuesday, October 6, to answer allegations of her, and her family, receiving cash from former House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco. Screengrab from livestream.
Manuel Mogato | October 6, 2026
MANILA — The National Security Council (NSC) said on Tuesday it will look into reports that the Vice President’s husband’s food company received more than 300 million pesos from China-based companies.
In a statement, National Security Adviser Eduardo Oban said the NSC will determine national security implications in the remittances to Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband Cale88 food corporation from 2022 to 2024. (Also read: China funnels 300 million pesos to Vice President’s husband’s food company)
“The National Security Council takes seriously the information presented during the impeachment proceedings regarding reported financial inflows from China into a Philippine-based company associated with the family of Vice President Sara Duterte,” said Oban.
Oban said the information involving “significant foreign financial flows” that may affect national security “warrants careful, in-depth, and responsible assessment.”
On Monday’s Senate impeachment proceedings, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Ronel Bautista said CALE88 Foods Corp received about P319 million from Chinese firms.
The transactions were part of 163 covered and 3 suspicious transactions reported by local banks to AMLC from 2022, Buenaventura said.
The AMLC said a total of 666 covered and 55 suspicious transactions were reported to AMLC from 2007 to 2025 with an aggregate of 4.4 billion pesos passing through Duterte and her husband’s bank accounts.
Oban said the financial investigation will be conducted in coordination with other government agencies.
“The NSC will look into the information presented and, as a matter of policy, continue to task the intelligence and investigative agencies and coordinate with relevant government institutions to assess the national security implications, if any, arising from the reported transactions,” said Oban.
Based on AMLC and Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) records, Cale88 was formed in 2021, and Duterte’s lawyer husband, Manasas Carpio, controlled 40 percent of the company. It later increased to 47 percent.
Duterte has listed Cale88 among Carpio’s business interests in her statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN).
In 2025, Carpio’s name disappeared from Cale88’s general information sheet (GIS) at the SEC, but a new company, Pokemon-Pikimon, surfaced, which was controlled by Cale88.
Last week, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said the money remitted to Carpio’s food company was highly suspicious because he does not own a factory that exported banana chips to China.
Trillanes also disclosed that Duterte’s “Tapang and Malasakit” foundation got 150 million from the Chinese government.
The Chinese embassy in Manila has denied the allegations.