On Duterte lying about alleged Trillanes bank accounts: May kanya-kanya pong style, president quite unorthodox pic.twitter.com/ZFlv7D6iyX

— Christian Esguerra (@IanEsguerra) September 20, 2017

MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte's admission that he invented bank account numbers to "catch" his critic, Sen. Antonio Trillanes, was "quite unorthodox" but should not affect the credibility of the rest of his allegations, a Palace spokesman said Wednesday.

Duterte earlier made public alleged offshore accounts by Trillanes, prompting the senator to fly to Singapore where he confirmed his supposed bank accounts there were non-existent.

Duterte's spokesman, Ernesto Abella, struggled to explain the logic behind the President's subsequent explanation that he had made up the account number only to mislead Trillanes.

"That's the President's logic," Abella told reporters on the sidelines of a Senate budget hearing.

"May kanya-kanya pong style yan. The President is quite unorthodox."

(Everyone has his or her own style. The President is quite unorthodox.)

Duterte's spokesman trying the explain the "logic" of inventing bank account number to "trap" Trillanes: That's the president's logic pic.twitter.com/5OtPAdgfwj

— Christian Esguerra (@IanEsguerra) September 20, 2017

Asked why Duterte would be "unorthodox" when he should have been factual, Abella said the statement should be seen in the entirety of its "context."

"You have to see the larger picture," the spokesman said, insisting the erroneous bank account number was an "isolated case."