MANILA — Atty. Manases Carpio has rejected any attempt to link his personal credit card expenses to Vice President Sara Duterte, stressing that the transactions discussed during the impeachment trial involved his own money, were incurred for specific personal purposes, and had nothing to do with public funds or the Vice President's official functions.
“There is nothing illegal about spending my own hard-earned money. No public funds were used for these personal expenses,” Carpio said in a media statement addressing questions raised during the impeachment proceedings.
Carpio emphasized that he personally paid for the expenditures using his own credit card and that Vice President Duterte had no involvement in the transactions.
“Vice President Sara Duterte had nothing to do with these expenditures and was not present when they were incurred,” he said.
Explaining the expenses in Japan, Carpio said he used his credit card to settle expenses during a trip involving a large group because many of the participants did not have cash on hand. The costs were subsequently shared among the group, he said.
“The expenses in Japan were incurred during a trip with a large group. Since many of us did not have cash on hand at the time, I used my credit card to settle the expenses, and we shared the cost among ourselves,” Carpio explained.
He also clarified that the Nike purchases were intended for a senior basketball players and the same were shared expenses.
The expenses incurred in Kuala Lumpur, meanwhile, were also for a junior basketball players that won a championship in Malaysia, Carpio added.
Carpio maintained that these transactions should be evaluated according to their actual circumstances, the source of the money used to pay for them, and their stated purpose — not through malicious assumptions linking them to the Vice President.
“These were personal expenditures made with my own money for specific purposes. They should not be misrepresented as expenses of Vice President Sara Duterte or linked to her official functions,” he said.
He underscored that the central question, in his view, is whether the transactions were paid for with personal resources or public money, and insisted that his expenditures belonged to the former category.
“The issue is straightforward: these were my personal expenses, paid for with my own resources, and not with public funds,” Carpio said.
He called for discussions of the transactions to remain grounded in facts rather than insinuations, arguing that the circumstances surrounding each expenditure must be considered before conclusions are drawn.
“Any discussion of these transactions should be based on the actual circumstances, the source of the money, and the purpose of the expenditures—not on insinuations that have no factual basis,” he said.
“We are now treading on dangerous grounds where your personal credit card expenses can be made public or disclosed by questionable subpoenas and will be used as propaganda or throw shade at your character and integrity,” Carpio added. PR