Duterte lawyer asks BPI to certify P211M didn’t exist

The legal counsel of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Monday requested the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) branch on Julia Vargas Avenue to issue a certification that at no time has there been P211 million in the presidential hopeful’s bank account.

It was the response of Duterte’s camp to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s challenge to open his bank accounts to public scrutiny.

Trillanes, a vice presidential candidate supporting Senator Grace Poe, accused Duterte of having P211 million in an undeclared bank account at BPI on Julia Vargas Avenue.

READ: Duterte accounts had P2.4B in transactions

Duterte eventually admitted that the bank account is his, but he claimed it never contained millions of pesos.

READ: Duterte: I have less than P200M in bank

“(We requested the bank) to look into the records of (Duterte’s) bank account and issue a certification that at no time since the opening of the account has there been P211 million whether singly, collectively or cumulatively deposited to his bank,” Duterte’s lawyer Salvador Panelo told reporters after coming out of the bank shortly after noontime.

Duterte’s counsel met Trillanes an hour earlier inside the BPI branch which was surrounded by policemen carrying shields and truncheons.

The face-off drew hundreds of supporters from both camps, each carrying their own placards. One camp shouted “Duterte!” The other shouted in return “Corrupt.”

The crowd filled the portion of Julia Vargas Avenue which in the entire confrontation has been open to motorists.

“The bank officials explained to Trillanes. We cannot just open the banks because we are following protocols,” Panelo said.

Panelo said the bank had asked for seven days to formally respond to the request.