Source sold bogus account info to Palace for P10-M: Trillanes

MANILA - Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday accused Malacañang of using intelligence funds to pay President Rodrigo Duterte's source of "fake" information on his offshore accounts. 

Trillanes, in a privilege speech on Tuesday, claimed that Malacañang paid P10 million to a certain Daniel "Snooky" Cruz for information on the lawmaker's alleged bank accounts, including one at the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS). 

The senator recently flew to Singapore to prove that the account was non-existent.

 "Nag-imbento po ng fake accounts ito at ibinenta sa Malacañang na binili naman and without verifying or validating ay isinubo nila kay Duterte. At itong isa naman ay iyun ang pinangangalandakan kaya nasunog siya nang ilang beses at napaaming inimbento nga niya. Ang nagbayad ay Malacañang, binili itong information," he told DZMM.

"Malamang galing iyan (P10 million) sa intelligence funds... Hindi naman bubunot ang mga iyan sa bulsa nila," the opposition lawmaker told DZMM.

Cruz, he said, gives security seminars for a living, but had pretended to be a financial forensic expert and former US agent.

The senator said Cruz also sold to authorities fake details on the bank accounts of Senator Leila de Lima, which were just identical to his supposed accounts.

He added that it is Duterte who is keeping millions of pesos in undeclared accounts and reiterated his challenge for the President to sign bank secrecy waivers. 


Malacañang made no immediate comment about Cruz. 

Duterte meanwhile has admitted he just invented bank details to "catch" Trillanes. 

He later said Trillanes closed his DBS account "online" before going to Singapore. DBS however said accounts can only be closed in person at its branches.

Duterte has also said his family had properties and businesses including an ice plant and lumberyard, adding his late father was a provincial governor. 

"All in all it would not go beyond 40 million (pesos or $785,000), my lifetime savings. A part of that was my hereditary -- you people from Davao know this -- property," Duterte said. "I hate to say it (but) what do you think of us, poor? That we are that poor?" 

The President, however, said he would not cooperate with the Office of the Ombudsman's investigation into allegations that he amassed ill-gotten wealth, saying these were "lies based on baseless" information. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Duterte's bank bait for Trillanes has no sense: analyst

MANILA- President Rodrigo Duterte's move of inventing bank account numbers to "catch" his critic, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV simply made no sense, a political analyst said Wednesday.

Former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, lawyer Tony La Viña, said Duterte's credibility may be questioned after he admitted that he lied.


"It doesn’t make sense. There’s no bait there. It actually gave Sen. Trillanes an opportunity to have a propaganda coup," La Viña said in an interview on ANC.

"Shouldn't we now not believe in anything that he says? That seems to be the message here: 'Don’t always believe me'," he added.

The President earlier publicly alleged that Trillanes had offshore accounts, prompting the senator to fly to Singapore to prove that his supposed bank accounts there did not exist.

Hours after Trillanes' Singapore trip, Duterte said he intentionally gave the wrong number of the senator's alleged bank account to “catch” the senator for lying.

La Viña said Duterte was on the losing end of his scuffle with Trillanes since the President did not have to go down to the level of his critics.

"He made himself equal to a senator. He doesn’t have to do this… Why does he go down to the level of his critic and in a lower position than him?" La Viña said.

Trillanes on the other hand, was able to make use of Duterte's lie to better his political image since he knew from the start that the President was lying, La Viña explained.

"Of course Sen. Trillanes knew this was fake. He would know his own account number if there was such. And since there’s none, he exploited to the maxim with all the visuals," he a said.

"I think Trillanes came very, very well from this episode. [It appeared that] here’s a good-looking senator, young, and he goes after a powerful president… that’s what he does and that’s what comes out," he added.

source: news.abs-cbn.com