CALL it campaign contribution from an enemy camp.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is richer by almost P1,000 thanks to cash deposits made by the staff of Liberal Party (LP) presidential standard-bearer Mar Roxas to prove the existence of his alleged hidden bank accounts.
Roxas showed to reporters yesterday a deposit slip for $10 (about P470) his staff put in one of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) accounts owned by Duterte and his daughter Sara as reported by the Inquirer.
The deposit was made a 3:06 p.m. at the Julia Vargas branch of BPI in Pasig City for account number 2434-0159-71.
Dollar account
Roxas’ staff said they tried to deposit an amount in pesos to the account, but was told by the teller that they could not because it was a dollar account.
True enough, the machine-validated receipt indicated that the account was in the names of “Rodrigo Roa Duterte” and “Sara Z. Duterte.”
On Thursday, the staff of Roxas made a P500 deposit to another Duterte account—number 2433-0695-39—at BPI’s Julia Vargas branch.
The deposit, made at 2:02 p.m., corroborated information disclosed earlier that day by journalist Ellen Tordesillas, who uploaded on social media a copy of a deposit slip to Duterte’s account, based on the details that appeared in the first Inquirer report.
At the briefing for reporters yesterday, Roxas continued his sharp attacks on Duterte, now the front-runner in the voter preference polls for next month’s presidential election.
Wishy-washy response
Roxas ridiculed the trash-talking Duterte’s wishy-washy response to the controversy over his accounts, comparing him to Vice President Jejomar Binay, another target of corruption allegations.
Duterte previously denied the bank accounts existed, but backtracked later with the caveat that the accounts did not contain millions as reported.
“Mayor Duterte, now your answer is ‘file a case first.’ Wasn’t that the same answer of [Binay] in response to corruption allegations [against him]? Are you now the same as Binay?” he said.
“You speak with a forked tongue,” Roxas said, taking Duterte to task for the mayor’s conflicting statements about the bank accounts.