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Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte 'has millions hidden in bank accounts'

A critic of the Philippine president says bank statements show he has 2.4 billion pesos (£38.3m) in numerous accounts.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
Image: Rodrigo Duterte, whose legal counsel dismissed the allegations as 'old issues'
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A critic of Rodrigo Duterte has released almost a decade of bank statements which he claims show the Philippine leader has millions in hidden assets.

Senator Antonio Trillanes, one of the few politicians who regularly challenges the popular president, published copies of what he said were statements from 2006 to 2015, totalling 2.4 billion pesos (£38.3m) in numerous accounts.

He claimed they belong to Mr Duterte and that he failed to declare them before his election last May.

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According to the documents, some of the accounts were joint accounts that the president held with people close to him, including relatives.

Some were individual accounts in the names of other close associates, but Mr Trillanes said all of them, even those that did not have Mr Duterte's name, actually belonged to him.

"If my allegations are proven wrong, I will immediately resign as senator," Mr Trillanes, a former navy lieutenant who led a failed coup in 2003, said.

"The president has been vocal on his campaign against corruption, but how can we expect him to solve this problem when he himself had questionable amounts of money in his accounts?"

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Mr Trillanes also made the claim about secret bank accounts during last year's election campaign.

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The president's legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, dismissed the allegations as "old issues" and said Mr Trillanes was "only looking for free publicity".

Spokesman Ernesto Abella said Mr Duterte may release the history of his bank transactions "if necessary", but not in response to Mr Trillanes' allegations.

"It's a rehash of the items already discussed three days before the election," he said.