Seller of Duterte townhouse linked to graft

THE MAN who sold the townhouse to Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s youngest son Sebastian in San Juan City is currently embroiled in a graft case involving the alleged illegal acquisition of a bank.

Eduardo A. Bangayan, a former trustee of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), was charged in April last year, together with six other LWUA officials, including former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay, of violating banking laws and committing graft.

The case stemmed from the “irregular” purchase in 2008 of 445,337 shares of stock in Express Savings Bank Inc. for P101.4 million equivalent to a 60-percent stake in the bankrupt Cabuyao, Laguna-based bank, formerly owned by the Gatchalian family and Forum Pacific Inc.

Based on Davao City Water District’s website, Bangayan is listed as DWCD’s chair, representing the business sector.

A document earlier obtained by the Inquirer showed that Bangayan was the last owner of the townhouse along P. Guevarra Street, Barangay Maytunas in San Juan City, which Duterte and his daughter Sara used as one of their two addresses in opening a joint account at the Bank of the Philippine Islands’ Julia Vargas branch.

The two-story townhouse owned by Sebastian was bought sometime in 2000, when he was only 13 years old. Sebastian had said that he didn’t know at the time that the property was under his name, adding that to his knowledge his father acquired it “through a loan.”

At the time Bangayan sold the townhouse, which has a total floor area of 222 square meters and a lot area of 107 sqm, it had a declared value of more than P1.5 million.

It has yet to be established if Bangayan is related to suspected rice smuggler David Bangayan, whom Duterte identified as David Tan, a key player in the P7-billion-a-year rice smuggling racket.

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