Palace: Duterte, DBS opposing claim on account closures 'unverified'

THE contradicting claims of President
Rodrigo Duterte and the Development Bank of Singapore Ltd. (DBS Bank)
regarding the closing of a DBS accounts through online processing were
both "unverified," Malacañang said Monday.

The President earlier claimed that his staunch critic, Senator Antonio
Trillanes IV, terminated his account with DBS-Alexandria branch through
online on September 8, days before the lawmaker flew to Singapore to
disprove his allegation that he owned an offshore bank account.

Following Duterte's revelation, The DBS responded to a query about the
possibility of terminating a DBS account through online means, saying a
bank account can only be closed by either going to its home branch or
submitting a closure authorization form.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the recent remarks of
Duterte and DBS Bank need to be vetted to find out the truth.

"You know, that's also unverified. All of these things have to be
verified clearly," the presidential spokesperson told a press
conference.

"Well, both [are unverified]. The President claimed that it was done
that way so let's make sure [if it’s true]. And then there's another
party that said it's not. So both aspects need to be verified," he
added.

Duterte first alleged on September 9 that Trillanes, his vocal critic,
has several offshore bank accounts in different nations.

He further claimed on September 15 that Trillanes owned bank accounts in
 Shanghai, China; Zurich and Geneva in Switzerland; and in Singapore.

Trillanes flew to Singapore on September 19 to visit the DBS-Alexandria
branch, where he was told that bank account number 178000296012, which
was provided by Duterte, was non-existent.

Duterte then admitted that he "invented" the bank account number to pull
 a trick on the senator.

But in an interview aired on state-run PTV4 on September 29, the
President launched another tirade against Trillanes, his vocal critic,
alleging the latter made sure to close his bank account prior to the
latter’s visit to Singapore.

"He terminated it online on September 8, 2017, past 10 p.m. then left
for Singapore after that to show his waiver of the bank teller in
Singapore that he has no account,” Duterte said.

DBS, meanwhile, told a Twitter user on September 30 that "accounts must
be closed at the branch or by form."