OVP's P500-M cash withdrawal 'unusual' - ex-LandBank manager

MANILA, Philippines — The withdrawal of P500 million in cash by the Office of the Vice President was described as “unusual” by retired Land Bank of the Philippines manager Violeta Constantino during the impeachment trial. Responding to questions from the senator-judges, Constantino, who spent all 32 years of her banking career with LandBank, confirmed that she had never witnessed a cash withdrawal of such magnitude before. "First time po," the retired branch manager said on Wednesday, July 29, when asked if she had ever encountered a P125-million cash withdrawal before. Constantino explained that the transaction was deemed unusual not only because of the staggering P125 million amount but also because it was withdrawn entirely in physical cash rather than through standard check or online transactions. She noted that, at her branch, any cash transaction exceeding P500,000 is typically considered unusual, depending on the client, making this specific withdrawal 250 times larger than that baseline. "Usually po kasi kaya naging unusual pa sa akin kasi cash po siya kinukuha," Constantino explained, adding that other government agencies and private companies almost exclusively transact using checks or online systems like ATM payroll. (Usually, what made it unusual for me was that it was being collected in cash.) When asked whether she questioned the purpose of the funds or suspected any illegality, Constantino maintained that the bank did not pry because the transaction was supported by official advice from the agency and was fully funded. "For this particular po hindi naman po kami nag-doubt kasi alam namin po na legit po yung transaction," Constantino said. (For this particular one, we didn't have any doubts because we knew the transaction was legitimate.) Constantino was the first witness in the impeachment trial to testify under Article II of the Articles of Impeachment against Duterte, which tackles the alleged unlawful use of confidential funds by the Department of Education and the Office of the Vice President.