PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte belied Wednesday the allegations of his staunch critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, that he spent P10-million to obtain a copy of documents of the lawmaker's offshore bank accounts.
"I will not spend any single centavo for you. He is not worth even P1," said Duterte in a chance interview with Palace reporters.
The President's statement came a day after Trillanes alleged that he spent millions of pesos to secure an "invented" evidence against the latter to a certain Daniel "Snooky" Cruz.
In a privilege speech delivered Wednesday before the Senate, Trillanes claimed the Chief Executive's source was Cruz, who claimed to be a former United States federal agent and a financial forensics expert.
The President, however, denied his supposed links to Cruz.
"I don't know [Cruz]. Frankly speaking, the only Snooky I know is the artist and [the character in the] comics," he said.
The feud between Duterte and Trillanes began when the latter accused the former Davao City mayor in the 2016 presidential campaign of not declaring some P211 million in his 2014 Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Networth.
The senator also alleged that Duterte had at least P2.4-billion worth of transactions in his joint accounts with family from 2006 to 2015.
Duterte repeatedly denied Trillanes' allegation and in turn claimed that the latter owned hidden bank accounts in different countries.
In the latest attack against Trillanes, Duterte said the senator "stole" a document of his family’s bank records through the assistance of her alleged "mistress" who was working in the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
The President was apparently referring to former AMLC executive director Julia Bacay Abad who stepped down from office in February after 11 years of service.
"It was Abad, who is the mistress of Trillanes, who gave [the copies of my bank] account… After this, I will not comment on it. One, it's ridiculous," Duterte said.
"It's Trillanes who will bring this government or this country down to the dogs. He's pretending to be brave," he added. (VoxPop Philippines)
