President Duterte is willing to reveal his bank records within the context of due process to dispel speculations about his alleged massive wealth, Malacañang said yesterday.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella, however, made clear that the President’s readiness to release his bank transaction history was “not in response to grandstanding.”
“If necessary and if within the right context, due process but not just to respond to some grandstanding,” Abella said in a Palace news conference.
Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV earlier accused the President of having P2 billion in bank deposits and challenged him to open his accounts to prove he has no ill-gotten wealth.
Abella brushed aside Trillanes’ corruption allegations against the President as a “rehash” of an old issue that has been previously addressed. He claimed that Trillanes’ latest stunt was just “part of the noise of the political landscape.”
Instead of engaging in political grandstanding, the Palace official encouraged the senator to go to the proper authorities to address his complaint against the President. “It is best to do it according to due process,” he said.
Asked if the Palace will press the Anti-Money Laundering Council to look into Trillanes’ allegations, Abella said such government unit is expected to “act proactively.”
Meanwhile, Trillanes reiterated yesterday his vow to resign from the Senate if he is wrong in his allegations that Duterte had a P2.2-billion bank account from 2006 to 2015.
“I will not back out,’’ Trillanes said of his vow to resign if the President can prove him wrong, adding that the P2.2-billion bank account came from the annual P1-billion intelligence fund of Davao City when he was the mayor during that period.
Trillanes released to Senate reporters documents that would support his claim that Duterte and members of his family had huge bank accounts more than nine months after exposing it during the heat of the presidential campaign last year.
“It has been months since the President’s camp has postponed the release of the President’s bank transactions and I am still waiting to be proven wrong,” Trillanes said.
“I am reiterating my challenge to President Duterte to release the transaction history of his bank accounts and if my allegations are proven wrong, I would immediately resign as senator,’’ he stressed.
(Genalyn D. Kabiling and Mario B. Casayuran)