Vice President Sara Duterte may still get to travel abroad, but figuratively, her world is shrinking.

Thus, said House prosecutor Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon on Thursday, July 30 after he got wind that President Marcos green-lit the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to submit to the Senate impeachment court the bank and tax records of respondent Duterte and her husband lawyer Manases Carpio.

The court, through a motion from the prosecution, earlier subpoenaed the documents for the presentation of evidence on the unexplained wealth article from the articles of impeachment. 

Speaking in a press conference, Ridon said the growing body of documentary evidence would strengthen the prosecution’s case against Duterte in the high-stakes trial.

“Lumiliit na ang mundo ng ating Pangalawang Pangulo (Our Vice President’s world is getting smaller),” Ridon said.

He said subpoenaed bank records began arriving at the Senate impeachment court on Thursday, while the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) also submitted tax records covering Duterte, her husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, and their business interests.

Ridon said the prosecution was also awaiting the submission of AMLC transaction reports covering P6.7 billion in total transactions and P4.4 billion in inflows involving the Duterte-Carpio couple.

“Inaantay po namin ‘yung updates mula sa AMLC (We're waiting for updates from AMLC)...hopefully within the day,” he said.

The Senate impeachment court earlier granted the prosecution’s request to subpoena Duterte’s bank records, tax documents and AMLC reports in connection with the impeachment article alleging that she amassed unexplained wealth.

The lawyer-legislator said the prosecution would next shift its focus from tracing the withdrawal of confidential funds to showing how they were allegedly spent.

He noted that former Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) branch managers Violeta Constantino and Nenita Camposano testified on Wednesday that the encashment of P612.5 million in confidential funds was unlike anything they had encountered during their banking careers.

“Ang sabi nila, in the entirety of their career, ngayon lang sila nakakita ng ganitong kalaking encashment ng pera. Kaya nga nila sinabi na ito ay unusual, ito ay kakaiba,” Ridon said.

(They said that in the entirety of their career, this was the first time they had seen such a large encashment of money. That’s why they said it was unusual, it was extraordinary.)

“As far as we’re concerned, ang itsura noon parang nilimas ‘yung pera para sa confidential funds,” he added.

(As far as we’re concerned, it looked like the money was swept away for confidential funds.)

Ridon said the prosecution’s next witnesses from the Commission on Audit (COA) would explain why portions of Duterte’s confidential fund expenditures became the subject of notices of disallowance.

He said the auditors would testify on the handling of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) 2022 and 2023 confidential funds, including the notice of disallowance covering P448 million and the COA decision that has become final and executory ordering Duterte to personally return P73.287 million in 2022 confidential funds.

Ridon added that succeeding witnesses from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) would also testify on questioned acknowledgment receipts submitted to liquidate the confidential funds.

“Malinaw, ang nakita natin mula sa COA document itself, ginamit ang confidential funds for non-confidential expenses, katulad ng leadership training at iba pa,” he said.

(Clearly, as we saw from the COA document itself, the confidential funds were used for non-confidential expenses, such as leadership training and others.)

The Vice President is about to come home from a two-week trip to Qatar, the United Kingdom (UK), and the Netherlands.