MANILA — Malacañang on Monday stressed that it would not comment on hearsay as it dismissed as “kuwentong kutsero” (make believe stories) the latest allegations that President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio failed to declare PHP 100 million in investments during their stint as mayor and vice mayor of Davao City respectively.
According to a story posted Sunday on the website of online news organization Vera Files, the President and his daughter allegedly omitted to fully disclose their joint deposits and investments at the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI), which purportedly amounted from PHP44.25 million to as much as PHP85.73 million a year from 2006 to 2014.
This, according to Vera Files, was derived from their analysis of bank records submitted to Congress and the Duterte’s annual network declarations.
The bank documents came from the office of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who entered the documents into the Senate records last October after delivering a privilege speech alleging that the president had more than PHP2.2 billion in questionable bank transactions.
Trillanes claimed that the bank records came from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
The AMLC, however, denied being the source of Trillanes’ records.
“We can’t comment on hearsay. The reality is the law says that bank statements are in fact confidential. And you need a report or request from the AMLC to get copies of the statements,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said during a Palace briefing.
He pointed out that the whole story hinges on bank documents which Vera Files could not have had obtained copies of, as well as a rehash of Trillanes’ earlier allegations.
“I would like to underscore the fact that that all these bank statements are rehashed from stories that Trillanes alleged initially during the elections which, until today, have not been proven because it is impossible to authenticate these so-called bank documents,” he said.
“Prove first that the documents are authentic, then I will comment. For now ‘kuwentong kutsero’,” Roque said.
Asked to comment on the fact that the Vera Files story contained new and more detailed information of the purported bank transactions of the Duterte family, Roque reiterated that the Palace would only comment if said documents are authenticated and challenged the online news organization to produce genuine records.
“Let me be very clear, if the banks will attest that those bank statements are true, we will comment. Until such time, kuwentong kutsero, tsismis. I challenge them, come up with certification from the banks that the statements are genuine then we will comment,” he said.
“But it’s really is improper to comment on tsismis (gossip). And they will remain tsismis until the banks attest to the truth and veracity of these bank statements,” Roque said. (Jose Cielito Reganit/PNA)
