EDITORIAL – What is Trillanes up to?

Vice presidential tailender Sen. Antonio Trillanes, poorly wallowing in the cellar of the electoral race, created ripples with his accusation against presidential frontrunner Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Trillanes whipped a storm accusing Duterte of an undeclared wealth amounting to P211-million deposited in a joint account with daughter Sara Duterte in 2014 in a bank in Ortigas.
Trillanes is rating very poorly in the surveys with only three percent and dead last in the latest results. And with only two weeks left in the campaign, it is more likely Trillanes will end up the doormat in the VP race.
On the other hand, Duterte has widened his lead to 12 percentage points in the latest surveys.
With Trillanes’ P211-M account spin, Duterte’s foes also have launched relentless attacks in an attempt to stop him from becoming President.
Trillanes as an accuser at this point is understandable. He desperately needs a storm to awaken his sagging hopes. He will also benefit from this spin as Duterte’s rivals will have to thank him for that.
But the move is classic Trillanes, a frustrated coup plotter twice over.
Trillanes presented alleged list of deposits in 2014 in a joint account that Sara Z Duterte and Rodrigo Roa Duterte kept in the Bank of Philippine Islands branch on Julia Vargas.
The documents purportedly were obviously not official bank documents but simply a computer listing of alleged deposits.
Likewise, Duterte and his vice presidential running mate Alan Peter Cayetano have in fact publicly signed a manifesto waiving their bank secrecy right and allowing people to ask for the details on their bank accounts. The manifesto also called on all candidates for President and Vice President to sign a bank secrecy waiver. No other candidate took the challenge.
It is now incumbent upon the accuser Trillanes to back up his allegations and prove the same. In Duterte’s case, he does not owe Trillanes a second of his precious time. If he does, it will only benefit his rivals who would be grinning from ear to ear watching him parry the bullets from a desperate hitman in Trillanes.