House Committee on Justice Chairperson Gerville Luistro has characterized the criminal complaints filed against her and several other officials as a calculated move to stifle evidence emerging from the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.
The legal action was initiated at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office by Mans Carpio, the Vice President’s husband. The complaints allege violations of the Bank Secrecy Law and the Data Privacy Act following the public presentation of financial data during a House hearing on April 22.
“Let me state for the record, it has been the position of the committee that in as far as the proceedings at the Committee on Justice is concerned, we maintain the position that we did not violate any law,” Luistro stated during a recent radio interview.
The controversy stems from the disclosure of Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) reports that flagged numerous “covered” and “suspicious” transactions involving Carpio and the Vice President, reportedly totaling billions of pesos. The complaint also targets members of the House panel and officials from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the AMLC.
Luistro maintained that the committee acted with extreme diligence and followed proper legal protocols before allowing the information to be made public.
She clarified that the panel did not bypass confidentiality laws by targeting banks directly.
“Talagang nag-iingat ang committee,” she noted, explaining that the panel relied on reports provided by the AMLC rather than subpoenaing bank records. “Ang nirereport po ng AMLC is not the bank account. Ang nire-report po ay covered transactions and suspicious transactions.”
The lawmaker further argued that the committee chose a more conservative path to ensure legal integrity, even though they possess broad investigative powers.
“Admittedly, we’re taking the safer side. We opted not to subpoena the bank, including the bank records, because we can actually see from the documents of other government agencies the information that we wanted to see,” she said.
Luistro emphasized that the constitutional mandate for public accountability in impeachment cases should take precedence over standard confidentiality rules.
She argued that the exemptions found in the Bank Secrecy Law for impeachment cases should logically extend to related AMLC disclosures.
“Ang ipinaglalaban ng impeachment process is the mandate of accountability mechanism in the Constitution. Having said so, it must be applied in totality,” Luistro said.
“We remember that under the Bank Secrecy Law, it was expressly provided that impeachment cases should be an exemption in confidentiality. Applying totality, it should be applied as well pagdating sa AMLC.”
Despite the legal pressure, Luistro affirmed that the committee’s work would proceed without disruption, viewing the complaints as a typical defense tactic.
“Basta ang maliwanag, these are attempts to suppress the disclosure of this information,” she concluded.