President Rodrigo Duterte threw another allegation against Senator Antonio Trillanes’ way by claiming that the senator closed his account at a Singapore bank before he flew to the country to debunk the president’s earlier accusation.
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Duterte said on September 29 that Trillanes closed his bank account with DBS Alexandra branch on September 8, a few days before he went on a plane to Singapore with the media in tow on September 19. It was also on September 19 that Trillanes was told by the DBS bank that account 178000296012 was non-existent. The president later admitted on TV that he merely invented the account number to trick Trillanes.
“Below is the screen shot of the DBS Alexandria account. Termination of Trillanes and where he sent the funds. He terminated it online on Sept. 8, 2017 past 10 p.m. then left for Singapore after that to show his waiver to the bank teller dun sa Singapore na wala siyang account,” Duterte said during an interview aired on PTV-4 on September 29.
However, Trillanes merely dismissed Duterte’s allegation, calling it a diversion from Duterte’s “billion peso bank accounts.” He once again repeated his dare to the President to sign bank secrecy waivers in his statement released on October 1.
“First thing on Monday, I would sign waivers for these accounts so that the AMLC can look into and examine them. Wala ng drama kasi wala akong tinatago,” Trillanes said.
“What about you, Mr. Duterte, kelan ka magpapakalalaki at pipirma ng waivers?” he added.
Could DBS bank account holders close their account online?
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The Philippine Star reported that the DBS bank protocol in closing the account does not include online procedures. Citing DBS Bank’s responses to some Twitter users’ questions on closing their accounts, the accounts simply cannot be closed over the Internet.
DBS Bank’s policy include requiring the bank account holder to actually visit the branch where they opened their account or fill out a form to authorize the account closure. And it does not end there as the form still has to be sent by mail. The account holder will have to wait for 45 days or so upon the bank’s receipt of the form before the bank will close the account down.
“Accounts must be closed at the branch or by form,” DBS Care’s Twitter account replied to a netizen.
@dbsbank Hi! I would just like to ask can clients close their bank accounts with you online?
— JR CASTILLO (@JRDCastillo24) September 30, 2017
Interaksyon also posted screenshots of DBS Bank’s response to other netizens’ questions about account closure.
To another netizen, the bank replied: “The account holder will need to be physically present at the branch.”
You can watch Duterte’s PTV interview here where he said Trillanes “terminated” his DBS bank account online:
Sources: ( philstar.com , interaksyon.com )
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