• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Partido Demokratiko Pilipino senatorial candidate Jesus Hinlo yesterday slammed critics of former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for their continued harassment against him.
Hinlo, a Negrense senatorial candidate, said that former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has long peddled the claim that former President Duterte and his family members have allegedly benefitted from illegal drug money, by citing their alleged bank accounts.
Definitely, the desperate critics of the former president know that any presented bank documents are inadmissible as evidence unless permitted in writing by the depositor. Thus, they continue to demand and dare former President Duterte to issue a waiver to open his bank accounts, he added.
Without doubt, the former president’s critics want to legally and politically pin him down with bare allegations, and the demand for him to open his bank accounts. To continuously demand from him to open his bank accounts is harassment, and a violation of his right under Republic Act No.1405 known as the Bank Secrecy Law, said Hinlo, the deputy secretary of PDP in Visayas.
If his critics want to be champions of good governance, Hinlo said they should apply their demand not only to the former president, but to all public officials, starting with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to open their bank accounts to be scrutinized by the public.
Citing Article III, Section 1 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, he said it states that no person shall be denied equal protection of the laws.
If former President Duterte’s critics disagree with the provisions of the Bank Secrecy Law, they should lobby for its amendment to allow the Ombudsman to look into the bank accounts of public officials who are under investigation for graft and corruption. Only then, will such an amendment be applied prospectively, he stressed.
Presently, it is within the legal right of former President Duterte to continue to make private his bank accounts, Hinlo said.*
