MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte claimed Senator Antonio Trillanes IV accumulated hidden wealth when he served as the country’s backdoor negotiator to China at the height of the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal stand-off in 2012.

“Yung mga dummy na ‘yan o nagbigay sa kanya ng pera or otherwise ‘yung kinita niya sa China (Those dummies or the people who gave him money, or otherwise what he earned from China) – he was going back or forth 8 or 9 times sa China, tapos ‘yun yung nag-accumulate yung mga pera niya (in China, then that’s when he accumulated money). That was the time we lost the Scarborough Shoal,” said Duterte.

He was speaking at an interview on Thursday, September 14 with television personality Erwin Tulfo aired on state-run PTV on Friday night.

In 2012, Trillanes was previously accused by former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile of being a “fraud” for supposedly favoring China when he served as the the government’s backdoor negotiator tasked with diffusing tensions caused by the Scarborough Shoal stand-off.

In notes, supposedly, of then Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady, Trillanes allegedly had 16 secret meetings with Chinese officials about Panatag Shoal and the West Philippine Sea. 

He also supposedly told the Chinese that the Philippines can’t enforce coastal protection and that Filipinos don’t care about Panatag Shoal.

Duterte himself, during the 2016 campaign, brought up Trillanes’ 16 meetings with Chinese officials and called him a “traitor.” This was around the time Trillanes first accused Duterte of hiding P211 million.

Accounts in more countries

In the PTV interview, the President again said the 12 bank secrecy waivers Trillanes signed are no good since the offshore accounts supposedly containing undeclared wealth are joint accounts with Chinese nationals.

“For the accounts where he uses his name, he has a partner. Even if he waives everything there, his co-partner, the Chinese, in every bank, if they don’t also give a waiver, you can’t open the account,” said Duterte in a mix of English and Filipino.

Trillanes has accounts, supposedly not just in 4 countries previously mentioned by the President, but also in Shanghai, Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland, Singapore, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands.

Duterte again said this information came from “another country.”

Despite his supposed exposes of Trillanes, Duterte refuses to sign a bank secrecy waiver, saying the Special Power of Attorney he signed in May 2016 suffices.

However, the SPA is limited in scope as it only asks a BPI branch to certify that his account there never contained P211 million. – Rappler.com