Trillanes calls for probe on Duterte bank accounts

Following President Rodrigo Duterte's challenge to Congress to investigate his alleged ill-gotten wealth, Senator Antonio "Sonny" F. Trillanes IV will file a resolution on Monday to formally ask the Senate to start the said investigation.

Trillanes' proposed resolution seeks to look into bank documents under the name of President Rodrigo Duterte and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio showing their undisclosed 'covered transactions,' or transactions exceeding Php 500,000.00, which may have violated the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).

"President Duterte must address this issue squarely once and for all and stop fooling the Filipino people. If he has nothing to hide, he should bare it all and sign the waiver. On the contrary, he has been dilly-dallying in his statements, and instead has been bluffing the people by publicly ordering AMLC to investigate his alleged bank accounts, although we all know that AMLC would not do it unless he signs a waiver on bank secrecy," Trillanes pointed out.

Trillanes added: "And now, despite Duterte's continued denial of existence of his alleged undeclared wealth, he suspended Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melcor Carandang for supposedly releasing his bank documents from AMLC. What is there to leak when they deny such documents being released by AMLC?"

In the proposed resolution, Trillanes particularly noted the report made by Vera Files that President Rodrigo Duterte and Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio failed to fully disclose in their Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth their joint deposits and investments, which exceeded Php100 million, under the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI). According to Vera Files' report, the transactions in their bank accounts included a P48.17 million placement in 2006 that grew to P55.13 million by 2013; a P40.55 million investment in 2009 that stood at P41.72 million in 2013; about $220,000, roughly P10 million, from 2006 to 2012; the purchase of P80 million in insurance policies in 2014; and a P16.85 million investment which begun in 2014.

Trillanes first raised the issue of President Duterte's ill-gotten wealth in April 2016 and filed a plunder complaint against him before the Ombudsman in the same year.

"With this resolution, I am accepting President Duterte's challenge to investigate his alleged ill-gotten wealth to once and for all reveal the truth on this issue. The public wants to know the truth and it's in the hands of the Senate to uncover it," Trillanes further noted.