DAVAO CITY—A well-placed government official said Senator Antonio Trillanes had 27 bank accounts in 10 locations abroad after President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday he would expose the senator’s hidden wealth.
The source said Trillanes had two time deposits in Shanghai, three in Beijing, two in Singapore, two in Australia, three in Hong Kong, three in New Zealand, four in the Cayman Islands, four in the British Virgin Island, two in Zurich and two in Geneva.
Trillanes immediately denied the allegations, branding them “fake news,” and said he would slap President Duterte’s face with certifications issued by the banks denying the existence of those accounts.
On Sunday, the official alleged that some of the time deposits are joint deposits with three different individuals, including Fabian Go, president of Granstar Finance and Development Corp.
In 2015, Manila Standard reported that Senate documents showed that Trillanes’ office was allocating P1.63 million a month to pay the salaries of 63 consultants, including Go.
Go earlier denied that he had joint account with Trillanes.
A depositor, whose name was covered in the photos, tried to deposit at least $50 into each of the suspected bank accounts—four accounts before the UBS Bank Switzerland (Zurich Branch), Commerz Bank A.G. Bank (Zurich Branch), Deutsche Bank S.A. (Geneve Main Branch), Nova Scotia Bank (Toronto Main Branch), Habib A.G. Bank (Zurich Main Branch), DBS Bank (Alexandra Branch in Singapore) and ANZ Bank (Auckland Main Branch).
During a speech before the Mindanao Business Conference in Cagayan de Oro City, Duterte said he would soon expose Trillanes’ bank accounts abroad.
Trillanes said on Sunday he would issue a waiver of the bank secrecy law to disprove Duterte’s allegations.
Speaking in an interview with radio dzBB, Trillanes said he had initially demanded details of his alleged bank accounts after they were announced by the President in a news conference in Davao City.
“Okay give me the details, but I already got them in the blogs of Mocha Uson and Erwin Tulfo and another of their fake websites, which came out with fake news on my bank accounts in Hong Kong, Australia and America,” said Trillanes.
Trillanes said he would invite the Ombudsman as a fact-finding body and the media to join him in going to the bank to inquire about his accounts.
He accused Philippine Military Academy graduates assigned to the Office of the President of creating the “fake news” about his alleged bank accounts.
