Duterte: Philippines lost Scarborough same time as Trillanes acted envoy to China

September 15, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte indicated on Friday that opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV entered a deal with China for a huge sum of money in exchange of the Philippine hold over the Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea.

In an interview aired over state-run People's Television Network Wednesday, Duterte revealed some of Trillanes' alleged offshore bank accounts.

He claimed that the senator, his staunch critic, accumulated huge amount of money when he was appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III as his special envoy to do back channel talks months after the standoff between the Philippine Navy and Chinese ships in Scarborough Shoal in April 2012.

He said Trillanes has joint accounts with the Chinese individuals, thus, even if he signs waivers to open the accounts, it would not be possible.

"And I am sure that his joint partners, they are dummies who gave him money. Or otherwise, those (amounts) he earned from China, he was going back and forth about eight or nine times to China. Then that's when his money accumulated. But that was the time that we lost the Scarborough Shoal," he said.

He said Trillanes has several bank accounts in Shanghai, Zurich, Geneva, and Singapore.

"He has an online savings accounts with ANZ --- ANZ Bank and ABN. AMRO, Shanghai. All foreign accounts of Trillanes are flagged as having international transactions. Aside from the accounts in Asia and Switzerland, he has four savings accounts in Cayman Islands, which were opened online. British Virgin Islands, four accounts. Balances of these accounts are below 700, whereby most of the accounts are within the USD 100,000 – 300,000 range to avoid detection in terms of large amounts of money," he said.

Duterte said, "Our providers suggested that before closing his Zurich bank account and Singapore bank account --- since all of these accounts are single accounts without co-depositor --- additionally the information that we provided has existing slips as evidence of these two accounts and were acknowledged to be in existence.

"The U.S. bank account number 927519921320 in Zurich has a balance of $75,000 or Philippine 3,801,385.05. The DBS account number 178000296012 in Singapore has a balance of 193,000."

A closer look on his bank account documents in Zurich and Singapore, Duterte noted revealed the name Antonio F. Trillanes.

"Check on this name because the senator’s complete name is Antonio Fuentes Trillanes, will force to the wall the senator says the bank accounts belong," he said, noting there are several Antonio Trillanes in his family - Antonio Trillanes III, II, and Jr.

"Maybe this is the reason why he is willing to sign a bank waiver. Because no four or number four in the name of Antonio Trillanes. But the date of birth and account owner has been confirmed," Duterte said. Celerina Monte/DMS