Carandang mum on legality of Duterte’s bank documents

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur H. Carandang –INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Arthur Carandang has remained tight-lipped on the legality of President Duterte’s bank documents supposedly held by graft investigators.

When asked by reporters about Mr. Duterte’s statements in October, Carandang simply replied: “No comment.”

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales had also declined to comment on the matter. “No comment, you know,” she said.

Carandang is spearheading the investigation into Mr. Duterte’s alleged ill-gotten wealth after Morales inhibited from the proceedings since she is the aunt of the President’s son-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio.

A furious President said on Oct. 2 that the Office of the Ombudsman’s bank documents were “illegally obtained” and said it “held evidence that they took them without the permission” of the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

Mr. Duterte said the Ombudsman should had secured first a court order to make its possession of his bank transaction documents legal.

Then, on Oct. 4, Mr. Duterte claimed that his alleged bank records came from “a certain Abad who is [the] mistress” of his nemesis, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. —VINCE F. NONATO