Duterte bares new ‘evidence’ on Trillanes’ alleged offshore bank accounts

President Rodrigo R. Duterte, in a taped interview aired Friday, Sept. 29, claimed that Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV had already closed his Singapore bank accounts before signing his waiver to refute Mr. Duterte’s allegation that he had offshore bank accounts.

In his interview aired in state-run PTV4, Mr. Duterte showed documents to back his allegation against Mr. Trillanes.

“Below is a screenshot of the DBS Alexandria Account. Termination of Trillanes and where he sent the funds. He terminated it online on September 8, 2017, past 10:00 p.m., then left for Singapore after that to show his waiver to the bank teller doon (in) Singapore (that he had no) account,” Mr. Duterte said.

He also showed what he claimed to be the real account number of Mr. Trillanes and presented a document on where the senator allegedly transferred his money upon closing his account.

Mr. Duterte also showed other documents in blue and red representations, wherein those in the blue corner were his co-depositors, whereas those in red were the individuals to whom the senator supposedly transferred his money.

“’Yung itong bank account na blue, yun yung nagbigay ng pera. Tapos siguro yun ang nagbigay kasi ano siya, co-depositor. Itong mga pera na ito — Arturo Ang Chua, Michelle Sy, Patrick Go. International transfer, kita niyo amount. John Gomez (This bank account in blue, this is the one who gave the money. Maybe he’s the co-depositor. These money deposited — to Arturo Ang Chua, Michelle Sy, Patrick Go. These were international transfer, you can see the amount. John Gomez.),” he said.

According to the document presented by Mr. Duterte, Sen. Trillanes transferred his money to a certain “Fabian Go” and “Roberto Fong” after closing his account.

“Yung Red, doon niya nilipat. So ‘yung fund transfer withdrawal is 40 [thousand] kay Juan Antonio F. Trillanes pati Robert Fong. Ewan ko kung sino yun. Fund transfer withdrawal 36,000. Bank of East Asia Hong Kong. Kasi Manila Branch na ito (The account in red, that’s where he transferred the money. See the fund transfer withdrawal worth P40,000 by Juan Antonio F. Trillanes, then Robert Fong. I don’t know who he is… This is Manila branch),” he said.

“Fabian Go, Roberto Fong tapos April 15, 2016. Fund transfer na naman. Fabian Go, Roberto Fong. Fund transfer sa July, 2016 (Fabian Go, Roberto Fong tapos April 15, 2016. Fund transfer again. Fabian Go, Roberto Fong. Fund transfer on July, 2016),” he added.

Asked by his interviewer Erwin Tulfo who those individuals were, Mr. Duterte said they were from abroad.

Mr. Duterte also emphasized that Mr. Trillanes’s transactions were in small amounts to avoid suspicions of money laundering.

“Maliliit lang e. Kasi kung iisahin mo, account yan. Aabot yan doon sa limit na kailangan tanungin ka kung saan mo nakuha ang pera. Bank of Asia is 46. Maliit yan, hindi yan pakikialaman. Pero doon sa bigger picture, yung country nagbigay nito, pinagiipon-ipon yan lahat (This is small. You can’t investigate it one by one because it’s an account. It’s going to reach the limit of what you’re allowed to ask where the money came from. Bank of Asia is 46. That’s small, it won’t be investigated. But the bigger picture, the country that was the source, you add them all up.),” the President said.

Asked where he got the information and documents on the alleged bank accounts, Mr. Duterte said “I cannot tell you the country.” But he said he made sure that those documents were authentic as these came from another government.

Mr. Duterte added: “Based on analysis, the funds being laundered by Trillanes and his group may not be for their personal use, but rather is being caused for their cause and possibly to destabilize government.”

On Sept. 19, Mr. Trillanes went to Singapore to disprove Mr. Duterte’s claim that the senator had offshore bank accounts, which then a bank teller said that the account Mr. Duterte subsequently claimed he had only “invented.”