AN OPPOSITION senator has pressed President Rodrigo Duterte to publicly release details of his bank accounts to disprove allegations that he had more than P2 billion of undeclared money.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV first alleged Duterte had unexplained wealth during the presidential campaign last year.
He told a news conference Thursday that he was raising the issue again because Duterte has not yet bared details of his bank accounts as a former city mayor.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella says Duterte will not release those bank details "in response to grandstanding" but suggested the president may do so as part of a legal process.
Abella told reporters that Trillanes’s allegation, which was already raised during the 2016 national elections, had been properly addressed.
Abella then called the latest tirade of Trillanes, a known critic of Duterte, as “part of the noise of political landscape.”
“It’s a rehash of items that have already been discussed three days before elections. Basically, he’s bringing up old issues,” Abella said.
“This (allegation against the President) is part of the noise of political landscape,” he added.
The presidential spokesperson said Trillanes could instead go to the proper authorities and submit the documents he had obtained against Duterte.
“Now, if he has truly something in mind, he could probably, he should go to proper authorities, in order to lay down something like this. It’s best to do this according to due process," he said.
Abella also debunked the claim of Trillanes that the President is planning to kill him.
He said the senator is being "very dramatic" and stressed that Duterte does not even have plans to respond to his allegations.
"If necessary and within the right context, due process, (Duterte will respond) but not just to respond to some grandstander (like Trillanes). He doesn’t really respond to those things," Abella said.
Trillanes earlier said he would resign if his allegation is proven wrong.
Trillanes revealed in April 2016 that Duterte had P211-million undeclared funds in a joint account with his daughter, incumbent Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) -Julia Vargas Avenue branch in Pasig City.
He also claimed that Duterte had bank transactions amounting to P2.406 billion in 17 accounts in three banks from 2006 to 2015.
In a radio interview, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the BPI had already dismissed the documents obtained by the senator as “fake.”
Panelo said Trillanes merely wanted to gain publicity at the expense of Duterte.
“You know, when you lie in one, you lie in all. If you lied before, no one will believe you now. I am just amused by him (Duterte). He is trying very hard,” Panelo said.
“Trillanes is just looking for publicity. You know, he doesn’t have to wait. He should resign because he is not fit to be a member of the Senate. The BPI had already said that the document he had shown is fake,” he added.