Trillanes, Revilla waive right to bank secrecy

Tweet

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines - Senators Antonio Trillanes IV and Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. on Monday signed their waivers authorizing the Office of the Ombudsman to look into their bank accounts including their foreign currency deposits. 

Trillanes and Revilla, who both voted for the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona last May 29, signed their waivers so that the ombudsman could verify if the financial disclosures they made in their statement in assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) are accurate.  

“It is a time-honored principle that a public office is a public trust. It is enshrined in the Constitution, the highest law of the land, and such command deserves utmost respect and must be the foremost rule in public service, said Trillanes in a statement.   

He added, "Thus, public office must only be held as long as the people surrender their utmost trust to the public official. We can only maintain this public trust through transparency and accountability in our government transactions, as well as in our personal assets that we declare." 

Meanwhile, Revilla admitted that it was only after Corona's impeachment trial that he considered signing a waiver. 

“After the trial, we appealed to our countrymen and fellow public servants to finally put the impeachment issue to rest and work together for the healing of the wounds of our past and re-strengthening of our institutions. It was only then when I realized that the waiver signing would be a right move forward for our country. We want to prove that we are sincere in our call,” Revilla said.

Follow @interaksyon