BSP, AMLC deny leaking Digong bank info

THE BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on Monday said leaked information on the bank accounts allegedly owned by presidential aspirant Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte did not come from them.

“We would like to categorically state that the BSP and the AMLC are not the source of the documents and information being cited by a vice presidential candidate regarding the alleged bank accounts of a certain presidential candidate,” the BSP officer in charge (OIC), Vicente S. Aquino, said in a statement.

He was referring to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a vice presidential candidate, and Duterte, a presidential candidate.

Trillanes earlier said that he did not get from the AMLC records of Duterte’s bank accounts, which showed transactions amounting to P2.4 billion from 2006 to 2015.

He said the documents came from someone who got them from a relative working with an agency that was investigating ill-gotten wealth of public officials.

Duterte first denied the existence of his bank account at the BPI branch on Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City but later admitted that it had less than P200 million.

Amid the brouhaha over Duterte’s bank records, BSP’s Aquino assured “the Filipino people that the BSP and the AMLC are not engaged in partisan politics and will never allow themselves to be used as a tool for political persecution or harassment, or as an instrument to hamper competition in trade and commerce.”

BPI mum

Citing client confidentiality, Ayala-led BPI on Monday refused to further comment on Duterte’s bank accounts.

“[The] Bank of the Philippine Islands will not make any comment as regards this morning’s discussion involving prominent politicians at our Julia Vargas, Pasig City branch. To do so would be against the basic banking principles of client confidentiality,” BPI said in a statement.

The bank said it was “committed to protecting client information and preserving the trust bestowed on us by our clients all these years.”

BPI denied on Friday it was the source of information on bank accounts that Trillanes claimed belonged to Duterte.

Informant named

At a news conference at the Magdalo headquarters in Quezon City after he met with Duterte representatives at the BPI Julia Vargas branch, Trillanes presented his signed affidavit that identified his informant.

In the affidavit, he said he got information about Duterte’s “secret bank accounts” from a Joseph de Mesa whom he met on April 21 in his office.

De Mesa “used to idolize” Duterte and withdrew his support “when he saw documents showing that Mayor Duterte maintained numerous bank accounts where hundreds of millions, if not billions of pesos, were deposited/transferred over the years,” he said.

The senator said De Mesa got the documents “from a close relative who was working with an agency involved in investigating ill-gotten wealth of government officials.”

FACE-OFF AT JULIA VARGAS Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV arrives at the BPI branch on Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City to check on the deposits in a bank account of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. At right, Duterte’s lawyer Salvador Panelo shows the special power of attorney granting him the right to request and receive a certification from the bank. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

De Mesa, he said, gave him copies of the documents showing the bank accounts in the name of Duterte and his daughter Sara at the BPI Julia Vargas branch and BPI Edsa Greenhills branch as well as the Banco de Oro Unibank in Mandaluyong City.

He said in his affidavit that he vetted the information given to him and also compared them with Duterte’s statements on assets, liabilities and net worth.

He said he executed the affidavit disclosing the identity of his informant so that there would be no more reason for the mayor’s camp not to issue a bank waiver and to “end this issue because I want the people to know what we know.”

Face-off

Earlier in the day, the much-awaited face-off between the camps of Duterte and Trillanes at BPI Julia Vargas where the presidential hopeful admittedly kept bank accounts drew throngs of supporters but went for naught, as no bank records were opened.

Instead of a waiver, Duterte lawyer Salvador Panelo requested BPI to look into his client’s records 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 account.”

“What is important is when Trillanes challenged us to open the account, we accepted it. I have the power to open it and we requested the bank to do so,” Panelo said.

Banks asks for 7 days

The bank branch, however, asked for seven days to respond to the request of Duterte’s camp.

Panelo said a bank official told him that the request had to be carefully studied since it was a joint account.

Trillanes said after the meeting,  Duterte’s camp had failed to issue a bank waiver even if he had given it an affidavit detailing how he obtained the information on Duterte’s bank accounts.

Panelo, however, said the special power of attorney (SPA) signed by Duterte granting him the power to request and receive a bank certificate from the bank was the waiver. “It is the bank waiver that Trillanes was asking,” the lawyer said over the phone.

But the language in the SPA was specific. It allows Panelo to “request for and receive, from the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), bank certificates for BPI Saving Account No. 2433-0695-39 to show the current balance as well as the fact that at no time since the opening of the aforesaid bank account was there a deposit either singly, or collectively of two hundred million pesos (P211 million).”

Trillanes is accusing Duterte of having P227 million—not P211 million as earlier reported—in the BPI account.

Asked about the discrepancy in the amount, Panelo said: “That is his problem, He is always changing his statements. That fact is Duterte’s account has no millions.”

‘Hearsay’

The lawyer dismissed as hearsay the affidavit that Trillanes handed to Panelo as part of the senator’s dare to Duterte to open his bank account.

“In other words, it was a hearsay coming from De Mesa. He heard it from De Mesa,” Panelo told reporters.

Panelo said he showed BPI officials Trillanes’ affidavit that contained Duterte’s supposed transaction history. “The official of the bank said: ‘Sir, we don’t have a form like that. That was done by a computer,” he said.

It was Trillanes who initiated the challenge to Duterte for a face-off at the BPI branch on Julia Vargas last week.

He offered to resign as senator and withdraw from the vice presidential race if his accusations against Duterte could be proven false.

The face-off attracted supporters from both camps who covered a portion of the avenue.

Duterte supporters were seen carrying campaign materials, shouting “Duterte.” The other camp responded “Corrupt.”

The two camps traded jeers with Duterte supporters calling the others “bayaran (for hire).”

Trillanes’ supporters came prepared, sounding drums and waving flags, ushering their principal’s arrival shortly before 11 a.m.

The security at the BPI branch’s periphery was tight with policemen carrying shields and truncheons keeping the supporters and even reporters at bay.

Roxas, Poe

Also on Monday, Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas  continued to press Duterte to reveal his bank transactions, a line of attack he has made since last week.

“Mayor Digong, why won’t you face the truth?” he said, addressing the foul-mouthed mayor by his nickname.

Sen. Grace Poe said Duterte should stop making excuses in refusing to open the history of his bank accounts in BPI.

In Tarlac, Poe said the exposé of Trillanes must be correct because Duterte continued to disregard the clamor for him to show all transactions in his BPI accounts instead of just giving the bank balance this year. With reports from DJ Yap and Gil C. Cabacungan