Day 37: The PHP 817.87 million question moves to the center of Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial

By Day 37, the prosecution was no longer presenting financial records one document at a time.

It was trying to connect them.

On Friday, October 9, forensic financial analyst Alexander Cabrera took the witness stand to explain what the prosecution says the bank records, tax filings, corporate documents and Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) show when examined together.

His conclusion was the day’s biggest figure: PHP 817.87 million in alleged unexplained wealth from 2022 to 2025.

That number is based on Cabrera’s analysis for the prosecution. It has not been established as fact by the Senate impeachment court.

Day 37 also brought another major change. The House prosecution formally dropped Article III, the bribery charge involving alleged cash distributions to Department of Education officials. The prosecution said it would concentrate instead on Article II, which deals with alleged unexplained wealth.

Here are five developments worth watching.

1. The prosecution dropped the bribery article

House prosecutor Jonathan Keith Flores confirmed that the prosecution would no longer pursue Article III.

The article concerned allegations that cash-filled envelopes were distributed to DepEd officials during Duterte’s tenure as education secretary.

The prosecution says dropping Article III lets it concentrate on the financial case. Duterte’s defense can point to the same decision and ask why the bribery charge was filed in the first place if prosecutors were not prepared to pursue it.

The dropped article no longer has to be decided by the senator-judges. But the decision itself will remain part of the political debate around the trial.

2. The defense displayed Duterte and Carpio’s confidential BIR audit letters

During the cross-examination of BIR official Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez, defense lawyer Kristine Ferrer displayed Letters of Authority issued to Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio.

Garcia-Marquez reminded the defense that the documents were confidential. Ferrer said Duterte and Carpio had consented to their presentation.

The documents also showed the names of BIR personnel.

Garcia-Marquez flagged the exposure of the unredacted names, and Presiding Officer Francis Escudero ordered the Senate’s morning livestream taken down.

The irony was hard to miss. The defense had repeatedly objected to the use of confidential financial records, yet it was the defense presentation that exposed the BIR officers’ names.

3. No BIR record was found for the reported CALE88 share transfer

CALE88 returned to the center of the questioning.

The BIR witness testified that the agency had no record of an Electronic Certificate Authorizing Registration, or eCAR, for the reported transfer of Manases Carpio’s CALE88 shares.

The absence of that document is significant because an eCAR is normally required before a share transfer is recorded for tax purposes.

But the research goes too far when it says this proves Carpio remained the “beneficial owner.”

What the testimony supports is narrower: the BIR says it has no record of the eCAR connected to the transfer.

The prosecution tried to draw a stronger conclusion from that absence. The defense objected, and the court struck the conclusion from the record.

So the senator-judges still have to decide what the missing eCAR actually proves about ownership.

4. Hontiveros questioned a CALE88 remittance linked to a Ukrainian company

Senator-judge Risa Hontiveros raised another foreign transaction involving CALE88.

She said Arkmen LLC, a Ukrainian company, had sent funds to CALE88 and had later become the subject of criminal proceedings in Ukraine involving alleged fraud and money laundering.

According to the research, the proceedings began on May 19, 2025 and involved EUR 1.225 million. It also states that Ukrainian court orders later authorized searches and froze company equity. CALE88 reportedly received an inward remittance from Arkmen as late as May 30, 2025.

The Ukrainian case does not by itself prove that CALE88, Carpio or Duterte did anything illegal.

Garcia-Marquez was asked a narrower question: if the remittances were legitimate business income, should they appear in CALE88’s tax returns? She said yes.

The defense still has to explain what the remittances were for and how CALE88 recorded them.

5. Cabrera put one number on the prosecution’s financial case: PHP 817.87 million

Late in the session, forensic financial analyst Alexander Cabrera put a total figure on the prosecution’s Article II case: PHP 817.87 million in alleged unexplained wealth.

The defense objected to his access to confidential financial records. House prosecutor Chel Diokno argued that lawyers may provide lawfully obtained evidence to experts assisting their case.

Escudero allowed Cabrera to testify and said the defense would have the same opportunity when it presents its own evidence.

Cabrera then presented his analysis:

• 2022: PHP 190.63 million
• 2023: PHP 167.38 million
• 2024: PHP 263.22 million
• 2025: PHP 195.70 million

Total: PHP 817.87 million.

This is Cabrera’s calculation for the prosecution. It is not yet a finding of the impeachment court.

For weeks, senator-judges had been looking at bank records, tax returns, SALNs and corporate documents separately. Cabrera’s testimony was the prosecution’s attempt to put those records into one calculation.

His figure was PHP 817.87 million.

The defense now gets to test how he arrived at it.

The BIR audit is already underway

Day 37 also confirmed that CALE88 is under BIR examination.

The research says Garcia-Marquez testified that the BIR had issued a Letter of Authority for the company. Senator-judges also questioned discrepancies between reported sales, remittances and financial statements.

Garcia-Marquez explained that inflows may represent loans, donations or other transactions, but they still have to be properly reflected in company records.

An audit is not a finding of guilt.

The BIR has not yet issued a final determination establishing tax evasion based on the testimony presented in the research.

What netizens were talking about

Online discussion quickly zeroed in on Cabrera’s PHP 817.87 million figure.

The research cites discussions on Reddit, X and Facebook, where critics of Duterte focused on the financial discrepancies, the missing eCAR and the foreign remittances. Supporters of Duterte questioned the fairness of the proceedings and treated the decision to drop Article III as a sign that the bribery allegation had weakened.

One phrase that circulated online was “Peke-mong Pikimong,” a play on Pikimong Pikimong Corporation and the questions around the reported CALE88 share transfer.

The PHP 11.3 million in checks issued by Duterte to her dentist also drew jokes online after Cabrera remarked that the amount was unlikely to be payment for ordinary dental fillings.

That comment did not stay in the record.

Diokno himself moved to have the remark stricken, and Escudero granted the request.

The online reactions are useful for showing what people were discussing, but they are not a measure of national public opinion.

What Day 37 actually established

Day 37 added several things to the record.

The prosecution dropped Article III.

The BIR said it had no record of an eCAR for the reported CALE88 share transfer.

Senator-judges questioned foreign remittances to CALE88.

And Cabrera presented a calculation of PHP 817.87 million in alleged unexplained wealth.

The PHP 817.87 million figure is now on the record. The defense has to show where Cabrera got it wrong.

The useful question now is simple: how much of Cabrera’s PHP 817.87 million figure can the defense actually account for?

We should watch the records they present, not the slogans from either camp.

Day 37 gave the prosecution its number.

Now the defense has to answer it.