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WHEN PHL LOST SCARBOROUGH

Duterte: Trillanes padded bank accounts in travels to China


President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday accused Senator Antonio Trillanes IV of earning millions of pesos while traveling to China around the time the country lost control of Scarborough Shoal to the Chinese.

Duterte indicated that Trillanes deposited the windfall in several accounts in Zurich, Geneva, Shanghai and Singapore.

Duterte said the Zurich account has a balance of $75,000 while the Singapore account has $193,000.

He added that the Zurich and Singapore accounts were opened under the name “Antonio F. Trillanes.” The President said that Trillanes’ middle name is Fuentes.

“Iyong kinita niya sa China, he was going back and forth about eight or nine times to China and iyon iyong nag-accumulate ang pera niya. But that was the time we lost the Scarborough Shoal,” Duterte said in an interview on state-run PTV-4.

Senator Trillanes on Friday night denied President Duterte's allegation that his bank secrecy waivers would be of no use because some of the accounts had co-depositors, who should also execute similar waivers for the bank accounts to be examined by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Trillanes also denied Duterte's remarks that he earned millions of pesos while he traveled frequently to China around the time the Philippines lost control of the Scarborough Shoal.

"As I keep on stressing, AMLC has the power to access foreign accounts either held singly or jointly. That's why I signed those waivers unconditionally. Pero iniiba na naman nya ang usapan, bakit ayaw pumirma ng waiver para malaman ang katotohanan ukol sa BPI accounts nya?" Trillanes said in a text message.

"Duterte just keeps on burying himself in lies. He can't even release bank details of these supposed offshore accounts other than those released by Erwin Tulfo and Mocha Uson," he added.

"As for the Scarborough Shoal issue, binasura na ng Ombudsman ang kaso na yan na base lamang sa conspiracy theory ni Enrile," Trillanes said.

The President said his staunch critic's bank secrecy waivers would be useless in opening some of the accounts because they were opened with Chinese partners.

“Even if he waives everything there, iyong co-partner niyang mga Chinese for every bank, 'pag hindi nagbigay ng waiver, you cannot open the account," Duterte said.

"Hindi mo talaga pwede buksan and I am sure na iyong joint partner niya, mga dummy niya or iyong mga nagbigay sa kanya ng pera,” he added.

Duterte, however, said Trillanes didn't have co-depositors for his bank accounts in Zurich and Singapore.

“Our provider said that we focus on the Zurich bank account and Singapore bank account since all of these accounts are single accounts without co-depositor,”

Duterte said all of Trillanes' accounts were flagged as having international transactions.

Aside from Asian and Swiss accounts, Trillanes also opened accounts in the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands, according to the report Duterte read.

“Matanong ko lang ang Pilipino, did it occur to you the strange thing na wala siyang bank account ni piso? He’s a senator, a family man, nagtataka ba kayo na wala siyang sinasabing bank account niya na kanya?” Duterte said.

After Duterte and his supporters alleged that Trillanes had offshore bank accounts, the senator on Monday submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) waivers on the secrecy of bank deposits, covering 12 alleged offshore accounts.

These included waivers on accounts that Trillanes said were in non-existent banks—Nova Scotia Bank and Hongkong Shanghai Bank—that were included in the allegations against him.

“Dinala mo away sa teritoryo ko. Hindi ka pwede tumindig sa’kin dito...Magpaka-lalaki ka. Hindi ka mapo-proteksyonan ng baril mo sa tagiliran,” Trillanes told Duterte through the media. —NB/BAP, GMA News

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