Trillanes signs waiver to open bank accounts

Senator Antonio "Sonny" F. Trillanes IV on Monday signed an unqualified waiver allowing the Office of the Ombudsman to look into his bank accounts for the purpose of reviewing the accuracy of his present and past Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).

"It is a time-honoured principle that a public office is a public trust. It is enshrined in the Constitution, the highest law of the land, and such command deserves utmost respect and must be the foremost rule in public service. Thus, public office must only be held as long as the people surrender their utmost trust to the public official. We can only maintain this public trust through transparency and accountability in our government transactions, as well as in our personal assets that we declare," Trillanes said.

Trillanes waived the absolute confidentiality guaranteed by laws on Secrecy of Bank Deposits and the Foreign Currency Deposit Act.

"By signing this waiver, we respond not only to the fervent call of our people for transparency and accountability, but more importantly, we fulfil our duty to the people and the Constitution which comes along with our mandate as elected public officials," added Trillanes.

The signing of waiver is in response to the challenge for greater transparency and accountability of public officials by disclosing accounts and assets with confidential nature in order to better scrutinize the officials' present and past SALNs.

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Attached is the scanned waiver of Senator Trillanes to the Ombudsman, and below is the text form.

Text form:

WAIVER

I, SEN. ANTONIO F. TRILLANES IV, hereby and by these presents, execute this unqualified waiver in favor of the Office of the Ombudsman and authorize said Office to open and/or access all of my bank accounts (including foreign currency accounts, if any) for the purpose of reviewing the accuracy of my present and past Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

Accordingly, I am hereby waiving in favor of the Office of the Ombudsman any and all rights to the secrecy and/or confidentiality of my bank accounts under Republic Act No. 1405 (Law on Secrecy of Bank Deposits) and/or Republic Act No. 6426 (Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines) for the purpose stated above.

Done this 4th day of June 2012 at the City of Pasay, Metro Manila.

                                                                                         (sgd)

                                                                               ANTONIO F. TRILLANES IV