For those who were disappointed over the fictional “Suntukan sa Ace Hardware” event, here’s your chance to get the best seats in the house for a real-life smackdown.
But we can’t guarantee that this one would involve a fistfight.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has dared Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to meet him on Mon, May 2, at the Bank of the Philippine Islands branch along Doña Julia Vargas Avenue in Pasig City.
The senator wants the mayor to honor a promise he made to sign a waiver that will allow examination of a bank account containing PHP227 million (not PHP211 million as earlier reported).
Bank challenge
How did this latest debacle start?
It may be recalled that when they spoke to reporters in Tacloban City, Duterte and his running mate, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, signed a manifesto urging other presidential and vice presidential candidates to execute a waiver on the Bank Secrecy Law.
On Wed morning, Apr 27, a report came out on Trillanes accusing Duterte of keeping over PHP200 million in a joint account with his daughter, Sara, at the BPI branch on Doña Julia Vargas Avenue.
Duterte camp denies, then later admits bank account exists
On Wed afternoon, Apr 27, Duterte, in an interview, addressed the public and dismissed Trillanes’s accusations as “pure garbage.” This was right before he delivered a speech before members of the Makati Business Club (MBC).
On Thu morning, Apr 28, in an interview on ANC’s Headstart, Duterte’s spokesperson, Peter Laviña, once again denied the existence of the BPI account, calling it a mere fabrication by Trillanes.
However, at around 2pm on Thu, Apr 28, journalist Ellen Tordesillas posted on her Facebook account a photo of a deposit slip proving that a joint account of Duterte and his daughter at BPI exists.
Tordesillas had disclosed: “A friend went to BPI an hour ago to find out if the expose of Sen. Trillanes on Duterte’s account is true. Using the bank account number she saw in the Inquirer, she deposited P500. It’s validated. The account is existing. Here’s the deposit slip.”
After the proof surfaced on social media, Duterte admitted that the account at the BPI branch along Doña Julia Vargas Avenue does exist. He, however, insisted that the account does not contain millions.
“Speaking to reporters in Bataan, Duterte said he has several bank accounts, but none of these contain millions. He said two of his accounts contain only PHP17,000 and PHP50,000 each,” reports ABS-CBN News.
Duterte pointed out, though, that “the BPI account is a joint account with his daughter, Sara.”
Trillanes’ dare
Trillanes is not letting go of the issue. He has offered to resign from the Senate and quit the vice presidential race if his allegations are proven wrong. He stated, “I have raised the ante just to prove that my information is right. Let’s see. Let him (Duterte) show his courage.” He added, “Mayor Duterte, please end the drama. Sign the waiver.”
“Trillanes said he and his team were gathering more information on several bank accounts in Metro Manila and Davao City allegedly owned by Duterte and his children: daughter Sara and sons Sebastian and Paolo. Accountants are helping to double-check the information, which, according to Trillanes, came from a ‘network of informants,'” reports Christine O. Avendaño in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Update: Digong gives lawyer go-signal to open record of his BPI account on May 2
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