A video on YouTube is claiming that the bank account of former president Rodrigo Duterte which ex-senator Antonio Trillanes IV linked to the illegal drug trade has been “cleared” and that the former legislator could be jailed for presenting fake documents. This is not true.
The House of Representatives Quad Committee looking into the former administration’s bloody drug war has not issued any statement on the matter. The probe is still in progress.
On Nov. 27, a YouTube channel published a video with this headline:
“KAKAPASOK LANG BANK ACCOUNT NG DUTERTE CLEARED NA!! TRILLANES IKUKULONG DAHIL PEKE ANG DOKUMENTO? (Just in. Duterte’s bank account was cleared! Trillanes is going to prison because of fake documents?)”
The 10-minute video presented no evidence of its claim and merely showed excerpts from the House Quad Committee investigation into the Duterte administration’s bloody drug war.
Aside from the headline, the video also bore the caption that the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) “confessed” that the documents presented by Trillanes at the hearing were fake.
This is also not true. During the Nov. 27 quad committee hearing, an AMLC official reiterated the agency’s denial it was the source of information on Duterte’s bank accounts. But the official did not say that the documents earlier put forward by Trillanes were forged or fabricated.
VERA Files Fact Check also debunked a similar false claim last week. (Read FACT CHECK: NO SC case or verdict vs Trillanes over Duterte bank docs)
Allegations that drug money had been funneled through the bank accounts of the Dutertes were revived during the Nov. 13 quad committee hearing where Trillanes presented ledgers showing P2.4 billion deposited to the joint bank accounts of the former president and his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, from 2011 to 2015.
At the hearing, Rodrigo Duterte denied owning the bank account and said he would hang himself if the transactions were proven true. At one point he said he would sign a bank waiver in order to disprove the former senator’s claim. He later changed his mind and up to now refuses to sign a waiver that would open the account to scrutiny.
YouTube channel AGILA NG BAYAN (created on Feb. 13, 2023) published the video, garnering over 65,000 views and 1,200 online interactions.
