MANILA – House Assistant Minority Leader and Akbayan party-list Rep. Chel Diokno on Friday filed a counter-affidavit denying allegations that he violated bank secrecy, anti-money laundering and data privacy laws in connection with disclosures made during the impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte.

According to a report, the complaint, filed by Manases Carpio before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office, stemmed from the release of bank transaction records involving the Vice President and her husband during hearings of the House Committee on Justice on the impeachment complaint against Duterte.

During the committee hearings, Anti-Money Laundering Council Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura testified that the Vice President and Carpio had a total of P6.7 billion in covered and suspicious bank transactions from 2006 to 2025.

The hearings also disclosed that Duterte and Carpio did not declare any cash on hand or cash in bank in their joint Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) filed with the Office of the Ombudsman from 2019 to 2024.

Diokno maintained that he and the other lawmakers acted within their constitutional authority.

“We filed our counter-affidavit in response to the complaint filed by Atty. Carpio against me and other lawmakers. Kami ay naniniwala na wala naman talagang basehan ang kaso. Ginawa lang naman namin ang trabaho namin at ang tungkulin namin sa ilalim ng Constitution,” Diokno told reporters.

“We did our duty as a member of the House Committee on Justice. We did not violate any law,” Diokno added.

Under the House rules on impeachment proceedings, the House Committee on Justice has the authority to issue compulsory processes for the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents and other evidence.

The Constitution likewise provides that the House of Representatives has the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment.

The AMLC report presented before the House panel stated that identified inflow transactions totaled about P1.51 billion from 2006 to 2022.

According to the report, the inflows were largely composed of credit memo transactions amounting to P1.41 billion. It also listed check deposits totaling P48.33 million, deposit transactions worth P45.73 million and cash deposits amounting to P4.95 million.

Under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, a covered transaction refers to a cash or equivalent monetary transaction exceeding P500,000 within one banking day.

The law defines suspicious transactions as dealings with covered institutions, regardless of amount, that exhibit indicators such as the absence of a legal or economic basis, inconsistency with a client’s financial capacity, structuring to avoid reporting requirements, deviation from a client’s transaction profile, or links to unlawful activity.