P211-M bank deposit? AS DUTERTE WIDENS LEAD, DESPERATE ATTACKS BEGIN

By Manny Piñol

As presidential frontrunner Rody Duterte widens his lead to 12 percentage points in the latest surveys, his foes have launched relentless attacks in an attempt to stop him from becoming President.

In their desperation, however, Duterte’s opponents missed so many fine details which would have given their black propaganda efforts more credibility.

Consider these:

– Senator Antonio Trillanes earlier claimed that in a meeting with Duterte, the Davao City mayor related to him how he executed people.

And how many times did Trillanes meet Duterte?

Twice, according to Duterte.

Now, out of pure common sense, would Duterte be so comfortable with Trillanes as to tell him how he “executed” people?

I have known Duterte for 24 years and had many informal and intimate conversations with him but never had he related to me any specific instance where he personally executed people.

In fact that story about him pushing a drug dealer from out of a helicopter while it was flying over Davao Gulf which was the talk of the town in the early years of his mayorship is nothing but an anecdotal account.

– In a recent press conference obviously arranged by Duterte’s foes, an alleged whistle-blower exposed the alleged connection between him, former National Food Authority administrator Lito Banayo, his son Vice Mayor Paulo Duterte and alleged rice smuggler Davidson Bangayan.

I saw the video footage of the so-called “expose” but as soon as I heard the “whistle-blower” mention the nickname of Paulo Duterte which is Pulong, I knew right away that it was a hoax.

The whistleblower claimed he knew Paulo as he was a Duterte supporter but when he pronounced the Vice Mayor’s nickname as “Pu’ long” rather than the unaccentuated “Pulong,” I concluded he did not know Duterte’s son.

Besides, Banayo himself later issued a statement that he is not the political adviser or strategist of Duterte.

– Trillanes, perhaps the most recognisable Duterte attack dog, came back in the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer today with a claim that Duterte and his daughter Sara, now running for Mayor of Davao City for the second time, opened a joint account in a Metro Manila bank which in 2014 was a beneficiary of over P200-million in deposits.

He presented to the PDI alleged list of deposits in 2014 in a joint account that Sara Z Duterte and Rodrigo Roa Duterte kept the Bank of Philippine Islands branch on Julia Vargas.

These documents, however, were obviously not official bank documents but simply a computer listing of alleged deposits.

At first glance, Trillanes’ report could generate curiousity but as in the two previous cases, the black propagandists missed out on a very important detail.

In March of this year, Duterte and his vice presidential running mate Alan Peter Cayetano publicly signed a manifesto waiving their bank secrecy right and allowing people to ask for the details on their bank accounts.

The manifesto also called on all candidates for President and Vice President to sign a bank secrecy waiver.

Duterte and Cayetano signed the manifesto on March 11, 2016 in Los Baños, Laguna.

Until today, no one among the other candidates has taken up the dare.

Besides it is known to the people of Davao City that Sara has not talked to her father since 2013 when the older Duterte decided to run for mayor again reportedly without consulting her.

In fact, Sara rejected the proposal of her father to run for Congress. It was only very recently that Sara reached out to her father again convincing him to heed the call of the people for him to run for President.

Now, how could two people who have not been talking to each other since 2013 until very recently possibly connive and open a P211-m joint account in a Manila bank in 2014?

This is the minor detail that Trillanes failed to look into before making his allegations about the joint account between the older Duterte and his daughter.

I guess this marks the carelessness and lack of attention to details of a rebel soldier who stages a coup inside a luxurious Makati hotel, who later surrenders and, guess what, stages another rebellion inside another 5-star hotel, and surrenders again.

Duterte has already denied the existence of the so-called joint account but knowing him, I believe he will come out swinging today and it is not because he is afraid that Trillanes’ allegations would hurt his presidential bid.

Duterte has been very proud of one thing – that in his long years of public service he has not been tainted by issues of corruption.

The man will defend his honour even if it means his death.