Trillanes: Palace bought bank records for P10 million

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (Photo: Senate of the Philippines/Facebook)

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV augmented his accusations against President Rodrigo Roa Duterte by adding information on alleged ill-gotten wealth of the chief executive.

In a privilege speech yesterday, the senator said that a certain Daniel “Snooky” Cruz who pretends to be “well-connected with the United States embassy” sold P10 million worth of fake documents to Malacañang Palace that contains information on Trillanes’ alleged offshore bank accounts including one in Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) that Duterte revealed last September 15 in an interview.

Trillanes alleged that there are also other middlemen who made money during the transaction because Cruz only received almost P3 million.

“Ang aking impormasyon ay binenta niya (Cruz) ito ng umaabot ng P10 million. Pero ang benta raw actually, ang napunta kay Mr. Cruz, around P3 million. So may kumita na mga middlemen. Ewan ko na lang kung sino man yang mga kumita na yan [Based on the information that I received, he (Cruz) sold it for almost P10 million. But the profit that actually went to Mr. Cruz was around P3 million. So, there are middlemen who made money here. I just don’t know who they are],” the Senator said.

Trillanes added that Cruz also claimed that he was a former federal agent who had access to banks “all over the world”.

He revealed that Cruz also provided the fabricated bank records of detained Senator Leila De Lima which was sold to a Cabinet official last year but it was not released because government agencies validated it to be fake.

According to his unidentified informant, Cruz, who claimed to be a financial forensic expert, altered De Lima’s bank information and offered it again to Malacañang officials.

“Hindi pa nadala itong si Mr. Snooky Cruz. Pinalitan lang niya yung ibang detalye at binenta ulit sa mga taga-Malacañang this time [Mr. Snooky Cruz did not learn. He just changed some details and he sold it again to Malacañang officials],” Trillanes said.

While showing his and De Lima’s alleged offshore bank records, Trillanes compared the two to be similar except on a few numbers.

Trillanes said that his alleged bank records were sold on August 31 and showed pictures of Cruz with Duterte, Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa and other PNP officers taken on the same date.

“So talagang nahuli natin. Buti na lang, may mga nagmamalakasakit na PMAers diyan sa Malacañang na nagbisto kay Mr. Cruz at sinabi sa ‘kin yung detalye [So they were caught. It is good that there are PMA people in Malacañang who cares and revealed Mr. Cruz and told me the details],” Trillanes said.

Trillanes told DZMM that the P10 million that was used in buying the documents came from intelligence funds.

“Malamang galing iyan (P10 million) sa intelligence funds [For sure it came from the intelligence funds],” adding, “hindi naman bubunot ang mga iyan sa bulsa nila [they will not get money from their own pockets].”

The lawmaker also reiterated his accusations against Duterte and showed  documents that state that the President’s bank accounts that had a total of 2.2 billion from September 2006 to December 2015. He said that the hugest amount transacted was P193 million on October 7, 2013.

He also named Businessman Sammy Cang Uy – whom he alleged to be Duterte’s election campaign contributor – is giving money to Duterte and his family every six months from 2011 to 2013 that totaled to P118 million.

“If we were to follow the pattern that every April to October, money amounting to P50 million or P40 million goes to the President’s bank accounts, then it will show that the money comes from (Uy),” he said.

Earlier, Duterte stated that he and his family became millionaires through an inherited wealth from their father, former Davao Governor Vicente Duterte, that was divided among siblings.