Man in viral passbook incident apologizes over hacking claims, reveals who withdrew P345,000 from his account
The man who went viral with a video of himself weeping and claiming he lost P345,000 to hackers issued a public apology to BDO after it was proven that the withdrawals made under his account were valid.
In a Facebook post on June 26, Gleen Cañete made some clarifications about his post that made the rounds on social media earlier this month. "Manghingi po ako ng paumanhin sa mismong banko, BDO UNIBANK, at gusto ko din po linawin na wala po silang kinalaman sa perang nawala sa account ng anak ko," he began.
"Wala pong nag-utos sa akin na mag-apologize. Kusang-loob ko po itong ginawa dahil na-realize ko na hindi tama na masyado akong nagpadala sa bugso ng damdamin at lumabas sa social media," he continued.
Cañete revealed it was his family that withdrew the money from the bank account. "Noong malaman ko na mismo ang [f]amily ko ang nag-withdraw ng pera, agad-agad kong binura ang live video para na rin sa kapakanan ng pamilya ko at sa BDO Unibank."
"Pasensya na po kayo at nagdulot ito ng pangamba sa inyong lahat ang nasabing video kasi hindi ko po napigilang ilahad sa social media ang sakit na naramdaman ko bilang isang tao," the Facebook user said. "Sana maintindihan niyo rin ako at ako'y inyong mapatawad at maibalik ang tiwala niyo sa akin biglang isang ama na nagsikap para sa kanyang anak."
Cañete, in a now-deleted Facebook video that was captured by several pages, claimed the money of his child meant for college tuition got taken. According to him, BDO told them the account was successfully connected online despite the passbook not having online banking or a card.
"Masakit. Ubos lahat," he said, before asking the bank to do something about the P345,000, which he said he saved for years.
Cañete's eyes were welling up and his voice was shaking throughout the clip.
BDO released an official statement on the issue on June 24, noting that "all withdrawals done by the account holder online were verified to be valid." According to the bank, Cañete advised that they would resolve matters within their family.
In a Facebook post later in the day, Cañete said he deleted his viral video as he was able to talk to the bank about the matter. He thanked those who sympathized with him but noted that he cannot disclose every detail about it at the time.