Trillanes ‘relieved’ after AMLC report, but laments Dutertes’ damage

This report is part of Inquirer’s special coverage of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment proceedings. For real-time updates, follow our live coverage of the impeachment.

MANILA, Philippines — While he is relieved that Vice President Sara Duterte’s questionable transactions — which he mentioned as early as 10 years ago — were confirmed by authorities, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV believes this came too late, as the Dutertes have allegedly brought immense damage to the country.

In an ambush interview on Wednesday, after appearing before the House of Representatives’ committee on justice for the impeachment proceedings, Trillanes said he is relieved that the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) now confirms what he has been saying since 2016.

Trillanes said this after AMLC Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura said that 18 of the financial transactions in the former senator’s affidavit, randomly picked by Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima, matched records in AMLC’s report.

READ: Trillanes vindicated: AMLC confirms Sara Duterte’s transactions

“I’m relieved that now, finally, after 10 years, AMLC confirmed what I released to the people in 2016.  However, I am also sad that the people did not believe me when I first came up with this,” Trillanes said.

“Personal vindication for me seems insignificant because the Dutertes have already caused huge damage to our country, so even if I was proven correct later on, for the past 10 years, a lot of bad things have happened, many from our country have died, been affected, and robbed,” he added.

Trillanes said he hopes that people who still support the Dutertes realize that they have been tricked.

“But now that this is here, I hope we push through with this so that we can shatter the image depicted by the Duterte family that they live simple lives, but here we have seen that aside from them being corrupt, their money came from illegal drugs,” he said.

“There you go, many Filipinos have been tricked because of what they did, from before up to now.  I hope they will wake up from this,” he added.

After years of criticizing the Dutertes, it appears that Trillanes finally got vindicated after AMLC confirmed that several of Duterte’s financial transactions, which he included in his sworn affidavit, were part of their report.

De Lima randomly picked financial transactions listed in Trillanes’ annexes and asked AMLC to check if this was part of their investigation.

Buenaventura said they could not divulge information about the nature of the transfers and where it was located, but only whether there was such a transfer of the same amount on the same date, which the committee chair, Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, said was good enough.

Eventually, Buenaventura said that all 18 transactions picked randomly by de Lima matched records in their report.

Trillanes hopes people would trust him after this because what he brought up was not a joking matter.

“I hope they would give me even a little bit of trust, because I am not coming up with mere stories here; this is part of my duty to the people, and we have been doing this since 2003. We do not invent stories,” he noted.

Aside from the confirmation of the financial transactions mentioned by Trillanes, AMLC also admitted that they found covered and suspicious transactions made by Duterte and her relatives.

Buenaventura answered after being asked by Deputy Speaker Ferjenel Biron if they had found suspicious transactions made by Duterte and her kin.

The AMLC official later clarified that covered transactions are bank transactions over P500,000, which banks report to the council, while suspicious transactions refer to those whose amounts are not determined, but were reported by banks because there is something questionable in terms of how funds were sourced.

READ: AMLC confirms suspicious transactions made by Sara Duterte, kin 

Wednesday marks the second clarificatory hearing on the impeachment complaints against Duterte, which will focus on allegations of unexplained wealth and her supposed failure to fully disclose assets in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).

Two impeachment complaints against Vice President Duterte are still under the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives’ committee on justice.  After the Wednesday hearing, there is only one more hearing date scheduled for April 29.

According to Luistro, the April 29 hearing would be dedicated to scrutinizing evidence regarding Duterte’s threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. /das /atm