Duterte-Cayetano challenges rivals to open bank accounts
The tandem of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano have signed a manifesto calling on all candidates for President and Vice President to open their bank accounts and challenged their fellow candidates to sign bank secrecy waivers.
In a manifesto they prepared and signed, the tandem called on their co-candidates for President and Vice President to sign their names pledging that they will make public their bank accounts, both domestic and foreign. They issued the challenge after they called for the lifting of the bank secrecy law for public officials and the passage of an anti-dummy law to prevent officials from amassing ill-gotten wealth using dummy bank accounts.
Duterte said that ending the country's disorder brought by corruption is what's at stake in the May elections. "Corruption, the victimization of the poor Filipinos, has already been a way of life. If I become president, corruption has to stop. Subukan niyo ako," Duterte dared.
The manifesto was supposed to be presented last Friday in front of students at the University of the Philippines-Los Banos (UPLB) during a forum on transparency in government, but there was not enough time. It was nonetheless signed by both Duterte and Cayetano. They are set to present the manifesto in one of their sorties this week.
The manifesto also provides a legal waiver of their rights to bank secrecy under the bank secrecy law, which means that they are allowing their bank accounts to be opened in the spirit of transparency and accountability. They are the first candidates who have undertaken such a bold move.
Cayetano earlier said that public officials like the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and Vice President Jejomar Binay can easily dip their hands on the nation's coffers because somehow, our legal system allowed them to conceal their true wealth through dummy accounts.
Cayetano stressed that their petition is a simple “integrity check" to prove who is "walking the talk" on the issue of corruption. The pledge is a document that legally waives the rights of the signatories on bank secrecy.
"It's very simple. If candidates have nothing to hide, they'll have no problem signing the document. But if they refuse to sign, they not only betray their sincerity in fighting corruption, it also puts to serious question how they accumulated their wealth," Cayetano explained.
"We cannot entrust the next government to leaders who have skeletons in their closets and/or funded by dirty money. Kapag walang korapsyon sa gobyerno, mas maganda at marami ang serbisyo at benepisyo para sa tao. Tiyak na matitigil ang gulo at may tunay na pagbabago, " the tandem concluded.
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