Duterte willing to open bank accounts to anti-graft body he created
March 7, 2018 | 4:55pm
Dante Jimenez, president of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, is chairman of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission. ALBERT ALCAIN/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO, file
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is willing to open his bank accounts to his appointees in the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission but not to his political rivals to avoid what he described as a "fishing expedition"
Duterte said he is ready to disclose his bank accounts to members of the commission, which he created by executive order, because he is confident that they would not find anything irregular on them.
"You want to know my bank accounts? I'll give it to you, right now. I'm not joking. I will write a letter. Or if you have siblings in the Central Bank. I will not take it against you, go on open the computer," the president said during the oath-taking of PACC officials in Malacañang last Tuesday.
"But if you are my rival in politics? Do not — if you want evidence, do not get it from my mouth or make me do the effort. G*** ka ba? Bakit ko gagawain sa iyo 'yan
(Are you stupid? Why will I do it to you)? You go to hell. But do not task me to do a thing so you can find (evidence) — you go into a fishing expedition," he added.
Duterte reiterated that he is ready to resign if the money in his bank accounts exceed P40 million.
"If it exceeds that amount, I step down. Go ahead, get it. I won't make such dare if you can find something there," he said in Filipino.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a fierce critic of Duterte, has been accusing Duterte of having hidden wealth since the campaign period for the 2016 election.
Trillanes alleged that Duterte and his family had more than P2 billion in questionable bank transactions. He also claimed that Duterte had failed to declare P211 million in 17 bank accounts.
Last month, the Office of the Ombudsman said it has terminated its investigation on Duterte's alleged hidden wealth because the Anti-Money Laundering Council had refused to release the data it requested. But Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque claimed that the investigation was stopped because of lack of evidence.
Asked if Duterte would order the AMLC to cooperate in the Ombudsman probe into his wealth, Roque said: "Well, the president has already said a long time ago that he has no problem with that, that he is not hiding anything. I think if the AMLC wants, they can really open (the bank accounts)."
"He (Duterte) does not want Trillanes to open them. But he has given the entire nation permission to look into his bank accounts."
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