The backlash to the alleged leak of presidential frontrunner Rody Duterte's Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) account number which was made public by Sen. Antonio Trillanes recently appears to have started.
In a post in her Facebook page today, Duterte supporter Rosani Masau said she and her husband have lost confidence in the BPI and decided to close their accounts.
She also urged fellow BPI depositors sympathetic to Duterte and those who were alarmed by the security breach in the bank to also close their BPI accounts.
"Today, I and my husband are going to BPI to close our accounts. The reason -- loss of confidence and trust in BPI.
"If a senator, like Antonio Trillanes, who is supposed to create laws can break them with impunity for the sake of destroying the reputation of a well known bank depositor, like Rody Duterte, how can we, the ordinary people be assured that this will not be done to us?
"The defeaning silence of the BPI management and its major stockholders, in condeming such violation of the bank secrecy law makes us tremble in the fact that only in a Philippine "Democracy" can laws be violated and broadcasted by the mainstream media without repercussion of punishment.
"Our deposits may be insignificant but if no one in the management and major stockholders of BPI are concerned about this blatant violation, then we have no choice but to protect ourselves by closing our accounts with BPI.
"If you feel the same way like we do, we encourage you to do the same."
This was the first public post made by a Duterte supporter in reaction to the expose made by Trillanes who claimed that the leading presidential contender keeps P211-M in his BPI bank accounts.
Duterte has confirmed that he has bank accounts with BPI but said they these only held about P17,000 and P50,000.
He has also dared Trillanes to sign an affidavit and file a case against him so that he will open the bank accounts.
He added he will not play into the hands of Trillanes by waiving his right to bank secrecy.
"File a case and I will open the bank accounts," Duterte said.
The BPI, however, could be adversely affected by the leakage of Duterte's account number as it is now perceived by many depositors as a breach of the bank's secrecy.
In the past, kidnap for ransom groups connived with bank insiders to identify clients keeping huge deposits.
This breach in bank secrecy actually resulted in strings of unsolved kidnappings of members of rich families.
(Images downloaded from Ronie Massau Facebook page.)
Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10206950692994813&id=1503183294
