Atty. Manases “Mans” Carpio, husband of Vice President Sara Duterte, is escalating legal action against high-ranking government officials over the alleged unauthorized release of private financial data.
On Monday, Carpio is scheduled to file a formal criminal complaint with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, targeting officials from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), and several members of the House of Representatives.
The complaint names BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr., AMLC Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura, and lawmakers including Batangas Representative Gerville Luistro, Akbayan’s Chel Diokno and Perci Cendaña, and Liberal Party-List Representative Leila de Lima.
Carpio alleges that these individuals violated the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), bank secrecy laws, and the Data Privacy Act.
According to the complaint, the respondents allegedly “connived to illegally disclose and divulge classified confidential banking records protected under the RA 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) as amended, Bank Secrecy Law (RA 1405) and Data Privacy Act (RA 10173).”
Carpio further asserts that “the AMLC and the House Committee on Justice leaked various private record of transactions, expanding to insurance payments, time deposits, investments and utility bill payments.”
The legal move follows a House clarificatory hearing regarding an impeachment complaint against the Vice President.
During the proceedings, the AMLC disclosed reports of “suspicious” and “covered” transactions totaling ₱6.77 billion linked to the couple over nearly twenty years. The data indicated ₱4.425 billion in inflows and ₱1.554 billion in outflows, with ₱791 million categorized as “undetermined” due to legacy system limitations.
Under AMLC guidelines, “covered” transactions involve amounts exceeding ₱500,000 within a single banking day, while “suspicious” tags are applied when transactions lack clear justification or do not align with a client’s financial profile.
While Luistro maintained that the House inquiry focused on transaction patterns rather than specific account details, Carpio argued that the protections governing such data are ironclad.
He stated that he was “constrained to seek legal action in defense not only of his wife VP Sara and the Duterte family, but more so in defense of the banking and financial community especially the unwary general public.”
Emphasizing the gravity of the alleged breach, Carpio noted that bank records remain strictly confidential and that “[e]ven the media is banned and may be criminally charged.”
He concluded that regarding the disclosure of AMLC records,
“There is no exception. The prohibition is absolute. That is what Congress itself enacted to preserve full security against any disclosure of any information or record obtained by the AMLC.”