MANILA — Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) Executive Director Atty. Ronel Buenaventura on Tuesday pushed back against the defense’s characterization of an alleged system bug that supposedly resulted in a discrepancy of more than P2 billion in records linked to Atty. Mans Carpio.
During the 34th day of the impeachment trial, defense lawyer Mark Vinluan asked Buenaventura whether he had previously stated that a Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) system bug caused the discrepancy.
“In fact in one of your reports submitted to the House Committee on Justice and you testified on this yesterday, you stated that there was a BPI system bug that caused a discrepancy of over P2 billion in the records of Atty. Mans, correct?” Vinluan asked.
Private prosecutor Mae Divinagracia immediately objected to the question.
“Misleading, Your Honor. The witness never mentioned BPI as the one who requested the correction of the report,” Divinagracia said.
Buenaventura also clarified that he had not identified any specific covered person in his earlier testimony.
“Your Honor, I never mentioned yesterday any covered person. In fact, if I recall, I mentioned a covered person made a request for correction,” he said.
The AMLC official then asked to be confronted with the document cited by the defense so he could respond accurately to the question.
The exchange underscored a dispute over how the alleged discrepancy and subsequent correction were described in AMLC-related records presented during the impeachment proceedings.
