Since most of my recent posts are about the Bank of Philippine Islands or BPI, might as well share something about the BPI Julia Vargas branch issue that involves presidential bet, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
This is due to the alleged accounts that Mayor Duterte owns as exposed by vice presidential candidate, Antonio Trillanes IV.
I’ve heard several arguments from both sides and I don’t know who’s telling the truth and who’s not.
When I first heard the news that Trillanes allegedly accused Duterte of having 211 million pesos on his BPI bank account in Julia Vargas branch, my first reaction was, “Is this another political tactic to attract people’s attention?”
I’m sure most of us are aware of Duterte’s standing in different surveys and just how huge his following is especially on social media.
That’s why I thought maybe Trillanes was trying to get the attention of Duterte’s followers and everyone else hoping that he’ll get additional support and votes come the May 9 election.
Then I saw Duterte saying that it wasn’t true and that Trillanes was just making up stories.
So my mind got confused again on who really is telling the truth.
Then here comes the “face-off challenge”, where I was expecting that Trillanes and Duterte will finally face each other with their documents to show all of us about the real deal and for us to find out who is telling the truth and who is making up stories.
A lot of people went to the BPI Julia Vargas branch to witness the supposed “face-off” or “sampalan ng passbook” and it even trended on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, but unfortunately, nothing happened. Nothing was exposed.
Then I saw the video of Trillanes saying that the reason he wanted to have Duterte’s account checked was because he wanted to know where that money came from.
And he’s afraid that Duterte might have been bribed by kidnappers or drug lords in exchange of their freedom.
And I thought, Trillanes has a good point also.
What if he’s right? What if Duterte is really involved in this kind of activities? Do we want to have a president like that?
Of course not!
But then again, there’s no way for us to find out the truth as of yet unless it’s fully investigated, which is not going to happen anytime soon because it’s election period and everybody is busy campaigning and vacationing.
So we have no choice but to wait until the election is over…
In the meantime, I also heard that in a statement released by BPI, they said that
“Bank of the Philippine Islands will not make any comment as regards this morning’s discussion involving prominent politicians at our Julia Vargas, Pasig City branch. To do so would be against the basic banking principles of client confidentiality,”
Still, the bank is firm to continue “protecting client information and preserving the trust bestowed on us by our clients all these years.”
I did a little bit of research about this and here’s what I found…
The Law on Secrecy of Bank Deposits or Republic Act 1405
This is an act prohibiting the disclosure of or inquiry into deposits with any banking institution.
It is stated in this law that all deposits of whatever nature with banks or banking institutions in the Philippines are considered confidential and may not be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government, official, bureau, or office.
EXCEPT:
- If the depositor provides a written permission
- If necessary for Impeachment cases
- If it’s upon the order of a competent court in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty of public officials
- If it’s in cases where the money deposited or invested is the subject matter of the litigation
Those found guilty of violating the law will face imprisonment of not more than five years or a fine of not more than P20,000, or both, depending on the court’s discretion. (Source)
Now my question is, should Trillanes be punished for exposing Duterte’s accounts?
Why or why not?
Let’s see what will happen to this case.
For the meantime, let’s hope and pray that we may have a peaceful and honest election and may the best candidates win!
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