MANILA: POLITICS – Philippine Senator Trillanes renews claim vs Pres. Duterte ‘ill-gotten wealth’

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Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said he would file a resolution on Monday to launch a Senate inquiry into President Rodrigo Duterte and his family’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.

In a statement on Sunday, Trillanes said his proposed resolution seeks to look into bank documents under the name of Duterte and his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. He said these showed their “undisclosed covered transactions,” or transactions exceeding P500,000.00, which “may have violated the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Amla).”

Trillanes has been harping against Duterte’s alleged hidden and ill-gotten wealth even before the May 2016 elections. Duterte won by a landslide despite the claims of Trillanes.

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“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,” Trillanes said.

“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,” he added.

Trillanes’ allegations have been repeatedly denied by Duterte and Sara.

But the opposition senator questioned their denial as he pointed out the suspension of Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Carandang for supposedly releasing Duterte’s bank documents from AMLC.

“What is there to leak when they deny such documents being released by AMLC?” he asked.

In the proposed resolution, Trillanes particularly noted the report made by Vera Files that the President and her daughter “failed to fully disclose in their Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), their joint deposits and investments, which exceeded P100 million, under the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).”

Citing Vera Files’ report, he said “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.”

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque has dismissed the Vera Files claims as nonsense.

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It could be recalled that Trillanes first raised the issue of Duterte’s alleged 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 said. /cbb