I became rich due to inheritance, says Duterte

DAVAO: The Philippine president says he became a local millionaire at a young age due to inheritance and reiterated he has no unexplained wealth as alleged by his leading critic, who questioned his claim that he was born into an impoverished family.

President Rodrigo Duterte gave some details of his personal assets at a dinner with journalists on Friday in his southern home city of Davao, repeating a pledge to imme- diately resign if anybody can prove that he has questionable wealth concealed in bank accounts.

Duterte said his parents owned land in Davao where a profitable ice plant stood and that he and his siblings divided the family assets after his father died in 1968. Duterte mentioned without elaborating that his family then was also involved in logging.

He said he suggested that the inherited landholdings be sold due to squabbling among the Duterte siblings.

“When we divided, we had our first millions already,” Duterte said.

“Long ago, I was just a student, fourth year. I already had about 3 million pesos (RM247,767).”

Duterte mentioned a local bank, now closed, where he said he had cash deposits years ago, adding that his critics could still check the records of that bank.

“If you want to really to trace my money, start from there,” he said.

All his remaining landholdings are now in the name of his children, Duterte said.

Opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has accused Duterte of concealing more than 2 billion pesos (RM135mil) in undeclared bank accounts when he served as a top Davao city official, contradicting, the senator said, the president’s claim that he came from an impoverished family. — AP