Rody ‘swindled’ on Trillanes bank info? Palace checking

Wrong again? Or just a joke? Malacañang yesterday admitted that President Duterte’s information about Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV closing his Singapore bank account online has to be verified.

Last week, Duterte claimed that Trillanes terminated his Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) account online last Sept. 8, days before he signed a waiver and left the country to disprove the President’s claims.

But DBS has denied that it is possible to close a bank account online. In its social networking accounts, DBS said one has to personally go to the home branch of his account or submit a closure authorization form.

When asked to react to the DBS’s statement, Abella said: “Well, you know, that’s also unverified. All of these things have to be verified clearly.”

Duterte has accused Trillanes of having offshore accounts, which the President later claimed are being used to destabilize his administration.

Trillanes has dismissed the allegation as “inventions” of Duterte, whom he had accused of amassing billions in ill-gotten wealth.

Last month, Duterte admitted inventing the supposed bank account of Trillanes to trap him.

Duterte said he deliberately read the wrong account number, 1178000291602, during an interview with state-run television station PTV 4 to fool Trillanes.

During the interview, Duterte said Trillanes’ account number was 1178000291602. He later claimed that he changed “8” to “9.”

“You know, when you lie, you put another lie to cover this lie… To cover this lie, it’s one on top of the other,” Duterte said.

‘Swindled’

Trillanes said yesterday Duterte may have been “swindled” by his officials into believing the authenticity of the documents showing that he has secret bank accounts abroad.

The senator said apparently some officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who were graduates of the Philippine Military Academy were duped by someone posing as a former “federal agent” with access to bank documents.

Trillanes did not give the exact amount but said the documents were procured for a huge sum but were later found to be fake.

The one who sold the fake documents has since disappeared.

“They (PNP officials) bought the documents, which they thought were authentic, but they were swindled,” Trillanes told reporters.

He said the officials have warned Duterte the documents were fake but the President continued to accuse him “so that he has something to say.”

Trillanes said he will expose the alleged fakery in a privilege speech today.

The senator also warned Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla, who chairs the Anti-Money Laundering Council, to act on his request to look into Duterte’s bank accounts in two weeks or he will file a complaint against him for failing to act on such matters in violation of the code of conduct of public officials.

Deputy ombudsman changes tune

After the Malacañang’s warning of possible administrative sanctions, Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang changed his tune, saying the documents he talked about last week concerning the President’s bank transactions came from the media.

In a statement yesterday, Carandang maintained that his office “has observed confidentiality” concerning the investigation on Duterte and his family’s alleged unexplained wealth when the latter was mayor of Davao City.

Last week, Carandang was quoted as saying that his office has been authorized by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to conduct a fact-finding investigation on Trillanes’ complaint over Duterte’s bank accounts.

Carandang was also quoted as saying that the deputy ombudsman for Mindanao leading the fact-finding investigation has secured several bank documents from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), which also found sufficient grounds to conduct its own probe on Trillanes’ complaint.

Carandang said the bank documents from AMLC show that Duterte and his family have over P1 billion worth of transactions in several banks from 2006 to 2016.

But in a statement issued on Thursday, the AMLC denied providing any bank records to the ombudsman.

The AMLC further said it has yet to evaluate if there is ground to initiate an investigation on Duterte’s bank transactions.

Carandang also seemed to have blamed the release of Duterte’s bank details on the media.

“Carandang states that he was reading through the documents shown to him by the media during the ambush interview, in response to media’s inquiry on the status of the complaint after more than a year since its filing and in stating that a request was made to AMLC as part of the investigative process,” the statement read.

Neither Carandang nor any official from the Office of the Om- budsman were answering clarificatory questions from reporters after issuing the statement.