Bill to exclude gov’t workers from bank secrecy law

A bill has been filed seeking to exclude government officials and employees, soldiers and police officers from the absolute confidentiality of bank deposits under the bank secrecy law as an anticorruption measure.

House Bill No. 3155, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, an ally of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, seeks the exclusion of elected or appointed government officials and workers from the ban on the disclosure of deposits in banking institutions under Republic Act No. 1405.

This would also cover all members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, and all other uniformed services, as well as officers and employees of government-owned and controlled corporations, he said.

Alejano earlier challenged President Duterte to sign a bank secrecy waiver to disprove allegations of having unexplained wealth in the form of bank deposits, which was also one of the grounds in the impeachment case filed against him.

Trillanes made the same challenge to the President over the weekend after he signed a bank secrecy waiver to disprove Mr. Duterte’s claim that the senator had hidden offshore bank accounts. —DJ Yap