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Senator-judge Joel Villanueva said Monday that the stocks of Cale88 Foods Corporation, a declared asset of Vice President Sara Duterte’s husband, Manases Carpio, were sold in 2025 to a certain firm that had only P84,000 worth of assets.
Villanueva made the observation after prosecution witness and lawyer Alex Cabrera, also a certified public accountant, testified that stocks of Calle 88 Foods Corporation were bought out by Pikimong Pikimong, an entity which has only around P84,000 in assets and even lower capital based on its corporate records.
Villanueva said that such an amount of assets is lower than Cale88's P150 million reported sales in 2024. It also had no listed rank-and-file employees based on its corporate filings.
“Pikimong Pikimong had only about P59,836 pesos in capital and approximately P84,700 in total assets, with no corresponding acquisition reflected in its financial statements. So parang sinasabi niyo po, 'yung sari-sari store, binili ‘yung isang department store?,” Villanueva said during Day 38 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Duterte.
Cabrera replied, ‘Yung dilis po, kinain iyong pating.”
(The tiny fish ate a shark.)
Cabrera earlier testified that the Duterte-Carpio couple has an unexplained wealth of P817 million based on forensic investigation of their financial records, including bank and corporate records. This P817 million includes those undeclared assets stemming from their shares in their business interests, including Cale88.
Villanueva then asked the witness if he saw proof that there was a genuine sale of Pikimong Pikimong buying stocks from Cale88 aside from the General Information Sheet of the two firms.
Cabrera answered none, adding that a GIS entry does not prove a sale indeed happened.
“Wala po [na proof of sale]. You could have seen the deed of sale, check payment, a cheque being cleared being reflected in the bank account, recording of the sale in the books, the journal entry stating a sale. The stock and transfer books should likewise reflect it,” he said.
“We need a menu of all the transaction documents that will be affected and will reflect the record of the transaction. That is the normal process,” he added.—LDF, GMA News