MANILA, Philippines — Manases “Mans” Carpio, the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte, filed on Monday criminal complaints before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office against four lawmakers, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor and head of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) over the disclosure of the couple’s “sensitive” bank transactions during a committee hearing at the House of Representatives.
Carpio was accompanied by his counsel, Peter Paul Danao, when he submitted his complaint-affidavit. He refused to be interviewed by reporters.
Named respondents in his complaint were BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr., AMLC Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura, and Representatives Gerville Reyes Luistro, Percival Cendaña, Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno and Leila de Lima.
Danao said the respondents were charged with violation of Republic Act 9160 (Anti-Money Laundering Act), RA 1405 (Bank Secrecy Law), and RA 10173 (Data Privacy Act).
He said that Carpio strongly objected to the “conspiratorial act of disclosing and divulging to the general public the purported reports of banks to the AMLC concerning their account deposits, withdrawal, bank balances and related records without prior notice nor prior written consent.”
During last week's hearing of the House Committee on Justice on the impeachment complaint against the vice president, the AMLC revealed that it received reports of "suspicious" and "covered" bank transactions amounting to P6.77 billion linked to Duterte and Carpio during a period of nearly 20 years.
Carpio said in the complaint that the AMLC reports involving his and his wife’s banking transactions were sensitive information that should not be disclosed to anyone.
“Yet, respondents openly divulged these banking transaction reports in a public hearing before the House Committee on Justice,” he said.
Carpio maintained that the respondents “criminally and feloniously” disclosed and unraveled the alleged transaction reports without his consent and despite his objection.
Danao said they believed that those involved would be criminally penalized for divulging in public the couple’s bank transactions without their full consent.
“The prohibition is absolute. There is no exception. In fact, even the media are not allowed to divulge any bank transaction reports,” he said. “That’s the same law that was passed and enacted by the members of the House of Representatives themselves.”