Rody’s AMLC order just a bluff – Trillanes

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said that President Duterte was merely bluffing when he ordered the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to come out with information about his net worth.

Trillanes said that the President was well aware that his instructions would not mean anything because a verbal order alone cannot be acted upon by the AMLC.

“His call to the AMLC was just a political bluff because he knows very well that it cannot act unless there is a formal written request,” Trillanes said.

Trillanes added that it is not within the mandate of the AMLC to determine the net worth of any individual.

Instead of coming out with empty statements, Trillanes challenged the President to sign a waiver on the secrecy of his bank accounts if he is sincere about wanting to be transparent.

Trillanes said that the President should show the public the transaction history of his bank accounts in order to prove him right or wrong in his allegations of hidden wealth.

Earlier this week, Trillanes revived his allegations that up to P2.2 billion in transactions were recorded in several bank accounts linked to the President over a period of nine years.

He also came out with alleged bank transactions of the other members of the President’s family, which run up to hundreds of millions each.

Trillanes said that the President should open up all these accounts to the public if he has nothing to hide.

Once he is proven wrong in his allegations, Trillanes said that the President would get his wish of embarrassing him and seeing him gone from the Senate because he will resign immediately.

Trillanes said that he has no intention to respond to the insults hurled against him by the President because all of these are just meant to divert attention away from the issues he raised against him.

“Tama na yang mga bola mo (stop fooling around) Mr. President, buksan mo na kung wala kang tinatago (Just open up the accounts if you are not hiding anything),” Trillanes said.

Trillanes said that he stands by his track record of going after big personalities who have committed wrongdoing in the past.

On the statements made by the President’s ally Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano about his penchant for spreading false information, Trillanes said that his former friend should just wait for his turn after the President because he has the goods on him too.

“With Sen. Cayetano, the issues are neither here nor there. You just wait. After President Duterte, if you want you can be next because I have a lot on you too,” Trillanes said.

‘Someone to bully’

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, the President’s daughter, said her father actually does not want Trillanes dead but instead wants him alive so he could have someone to bully.

Trillanes has been claiming that the President wanted him dead because he is his No. 1 critic.

The mayor said that Trillanes should take it from former Speaker Prospero Nograles who was then a fierce critic of the President even when he was still mayor. 

“Pagsure wuie. Buhi pa gani kaayo si Boy Nograles (Are you sure? Nograles is still alive),” the mayor wrote on her Instagram account.

The political feud between Duterte and Nograles was intense and dragged for two decades.

Nograles had been criticizing Duterte for many things, most especially his womanizing.

The animosity between Davao City’s two top politicians heated up during elections, when Nograles would throw all possible accusations against Duterte, who was Davao City mayor for 23 years. 

Nograles tried several times to run for mayor, first against Duterte himself and then against his daughter Sara, but did not win.

But when Duterte ran for president last year, Nograles became one of his staunchest supporters. – With Edith Regalado