MANILA, Philippines — Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV presented on Wednesday bank documents and “paper trails” reportedly showing that former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war was “fake” and just a cover-up for his alleged “drug syndicate.”
Trillanes said he and former Senator Leila de Lima gathered evidence linking retired policeman Arturo Lascañas’ accusations against the Dutertes and Davao businessman Sammy Uy with documented paper and money trails.
READ: ‘It’s a fake war on drugs’ — Trillanes
He added that these bank accounts were validated by the Office of the Ombudsman, similar to the ones submitted by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
“Ito pong mga ito ay manager’s checks under their name (Dutertes) na ang origin ng account ay yung isa ‘don sa drug lords na mention ni Lascañas na si Sammy Uy,” Trillanes told lawmakers during the House quad committee’s 11th hearing on Wednesday.
(These manager’s checks are in the Dutertes’ name, originating from an account tied to Sammy Uy, a drug lord mentioned by Lascañas.)
(Photo screengrab from House of Representative’s Facebook Live)
Based on Trillanes’ presentation, over P2.4 billion was reportedly transferred by Uy to the Dutertes’ accounts from 2007 to 2015.
From 2011 to 2013 alone, Trillanes said that the Dutertes allegedly received over P133 million: P14.88 million was transferred to Vice President Sara Duterte’s account, P15.65 million to the former president, P41.2 million to Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, and P42.6 million to Cielito “Honeylet” Avanceña.
“That’s why we concluded that this war on drugs is fake to protect his syndicate, which includes Michael Yang, Sammy Uy, and Charlie Tan,” the former senator said.
“Kaya sa Davao palang pinapatay nila ‘yung kompitensya, tapos nung sila ang presidente, ginawa nilang national death squad. ‘Yung nangyari si (Colonel Edilberto) Leonardo nga ‘yung ginawa niyang point person,” he further alleged.
(So in Davao, they killed the competition, and then after he became president, they made a national death squad. He appointed Colonel Edilberto Leonardo as the point person.)
READ: Trillanes: ICC given Duterte ‘death squad’ transcript
Trillanes added that this was also why Duterte protected Yang from dismissed Police Colonel Eduardo Acierto’s report.
In 2017, Acierto tagged Yang as a drug lord and claimed that the former president, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, and Sen. Ronald dela Rosa were aware of this but turned a blind eye to Yang’s involvement.
Last July, Acierto also claimed that Duterte wanted the military and the police to kill him due to his move to have Yang and Lim investigated due to their alleged link to the illegal drug trade.