TIMELINE: Duterte BPI accounts exposé
March 11. Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte and his running mate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, sign a waiver allowing the opening of their bank accounts for public scrutiny.
April 27. The Inquirer reports that Duterte, according to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, had at least P227 million—which he did not declare in his latest statement of assets, liabilities and net worth—in an account at a bank branch in Metro Manila.
Duterte denies the existence of the account in the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) branch on Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City, which allegedly contained the big amount. “I will not play into their hands by issuing a waiver. The account is nonexistent,” he told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
Peter Laviña, Duterte’s spokesperson, told the Inquirer: “Sorry we cannot comment until we see it, but now I can tell you it’s a lie, a fabrication and a black propaganda. Documents can be fabricated.”
April 27. Speaking before businessmen and diplomats at a luncheon meeting hosted by the Makati Business Club, Duterte dares Trillanes to prove the allegation.
“I’ll make it difficult for Trillanes. It’s just a piece of paper. You prove it. Why will I give it to him? I’ll take the waiver and I will tell him, ‘Prove it. I will not make it easy for you. I will not play into your hands’,” Duterte says.
April 28. In a press conference at the Magdalo headquarters in Quezon City, Trillanes dares Duterte to sign a waiver that will allow the opening and scrutiny of his bank accounts, and file a libel case against him if the allegations were false.
“I would resign from the Senate and withdraw from the vice presidential race. If my claims were proven false, I would no longer be in politics,” Trillanes says.
The Inquirer Research deposits P100 in the BPI account allegedly owned by Duterte. The transaction is completed as shown by a computer-validated deposit slip.
Later, Duterte confirms he has bank accounts at BPI branch on Julia Vargas Avenue, but says it did not contain millions contrary to Trillanes’ claims.
“I have accounts at BPI. But it does not contain that much money. Just thousands. It could not go beyond that. One contains P17,000, the other has P50,000,” Duterte says. Inquirer Research
Source: Inquirer Archives
