Miriam sees Malacañang’s hand on Trillanes’ expose vs Duterte

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Wednesday said she personally believes that Malacañang had a hand behind the recent exposé of vice presidential candidate Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV against her fellow presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

“Apparently, Trillanes has the support of the Malacañang because he was able to access the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) records against Duterte,” Santiago told reporters in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija.

Santiago was referring to the transaction record of Duterte's alleged bank accounts, which Trillanes supposedly obtained from a private informant.

Trillanes was accusing Duterte of having a number of bank accounts, one of which allegedly containing around P211 million that was not declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

Trillanes’ records show that Dutertes’ bank accounts had transactions amounting to P2.4 million from 2006 to 2015.

Trillanes further alleged that Duterte also have around 40 properties belonging to him and his family.

The AMLC as well as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) had earlier denied supplying the bank records to Trillanes.

Trillanes in an earlier press conference said he got the documents from an informant whose close relative was working “with an agency involved in investigating ill-gotten wealth of government officials.”

"I think Trillanes is acting as an ally of the LP (Liberal Party) administration. The LP administration does not want Duterte to be the next president for so many reasons,” Santiago said.

“One of the most potent reason is that if Duterte won as president, he might place President [Benigno] Aquino in jail for charges,” Santiago added.

Aquino is being tagged behind the illegal use of millions of pesos of funds under his administration’s Disbursement Accelaration Program (DAP) and in the 2015 bloody Mamasapano incident that led to the death of more than 60 people including elite police troopers.

GMA News Online was trying to get a statement from the Malacañang as of posting time, but in an interview with the state-run radio, DZRB on Sunday, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. denied that the Aquino administration has something to do with Trillanes’ exposé.

Meanwhile, Santiago, said regardless of the questionable source of Trillanes’ documents, Duterte must provide a coherent explanation on the allegations.

“There is a need to explain why so many of these bank accounts are mentioned and also why there are so many properties listed,” Santiago said.

“It is very eyebrow-raising to know that a person who lives in very modest means –I know because I visited him in his house –would have so many bank accounts with so much money and so many properties as charged by Sen. Trillanes,” she added.

On Wednesday, Duterte presented to the media a certification from the BPI Julia Vargas branch showing that the balance of his bank account only amounts to P17,816.98 as of March 31, 2014 and not P211 million as alleged by Trillanes.

Duterte, however , refused to sign a waiver that would open for scrutiny his entire bank transaction records. — APG/TJD, GMA News