Former USec for Special Concerns on Trillanes waiving bank secrecy: "Sinong niloko mo?"

Trillanes signs waiver on secrecy of bank deposits, photo from Sunstar

Abe Purugganan, former Undersecretary for Special Concerns, commented on Senator Antonio Trillanes' recent act of signing bank secrecy waivers, after President Rodrigo Duterte accused him stolen wealth.



Purugganan said that it doesn't matter how many times Trillanes signs a waiver, as the accounts where he hides his alleged massive wealth would be under a different name.

"Ang tingin ni Trillianes sa taong bayan ang walang alam sa modus operandi ng mga nagnanakaw ng pera sa gobyerno pagdating sa money laundering," he said.

Trillanes signed and passed the waivers to the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the Ombudsman on Monday.

In his Facebook post, Puruggunan also quoted netizen Jose Alejandrino who said that the waivers are not valid for foreign accounts, but only those in the Philippines.

"Who is this guy fooling? Those waivers are not valid for foreign accounts, only for local accounts here in PH. What Trillanes has to produce are certified letters from those foreign banks abroad where allegedly he holds accounts denying categorically that Antonio Trillanes never opened or held an account with them or any of their branch around the world. The waiver he signed is not admissible in foreign countries which have their own set of banking laws," he said.



Trillanes signed the waivers after the challenge by Duterte, to whom he gave a similar challenge.

"Twelve ito lahat. So, ito na, just to show wala ako tinatago, ito ay open for scrutiny. Nasa kamay na ng AMLC. Ngayon, ako naman ibabalik ko kay Duterte 'yung hamon. Nagparatang ka sa akin, pumirma ako ng waiver. Nagparatang ako sa 'yo isang taon mahigit na, iniiba mo usapan," Trillanes said.

It can be recalled that it was also Trillanes who said that Duterte hid billions in secret bank accounts.

Duterte, meanwhile, said he would also pursue cases against Trillanes in connection with the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Source: Abe Purugganan

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