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Friday, February 10, 2012

SC stops disclosure of Corona dollar accounts

Enrile orders all sides to comply
By EVANGELINE DE VERA and JP LOPEZ

VOTING 8-5 with two justices inhibiting, the Supreme Court yesterday issued a temporary restraining order against the disclosure of supposed foreign currency deposits of Chief Justice Renato Corona at the Philippine Savings Bank.

The TRO was issued on the petition of PSBank whose records have been subpoenaed by the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, on the request of the prosecution.

"The court took into consideration the law on foreign currency deposits. The TRO is indefinite until lifted. The dissenters are of the opinion that the TRO should not be issued," said court spokesman and administrator Jose Midas Marquez in a press briefing.

The tribunal issued the decision after a three-hour special session, and after the PSBank president took the witness stand at the Senate for the second day yesterday for the continuation of his testimony.

The Senate discharged the bank official after learning of the TRO.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, impeachment court presiding officer, said, "In deference to the SC … this chair would suggest and recommend to this impeachment court and the prosecutors and defense, to take heed and let us discuss other issues other than foreign currency deposits because of the presence of a TRO with the SC and which we will discuss that in due time."

Those who voted for a TRO were Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Arturo Brion, Roberto Abad, Jose Perez, Lucas Bersamin, Martin Villarama, Bienvenido Reyes and Jose Catral-Mendoza.

Those who voted against the issuance of a TRO were Antonio Carpio, Mariano del Castillo, Diosdado Peralta, Maria Lourdes Sereno and Estela Perlas-Bernabe, to whom the petition had been raffled.

Corona did not take part in the deliberations.

Carpio being the next most senior justice, presided over the special en banc session.

Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. also did not participate in the PSBank petition because his son, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco, was among the 188 congressmen who signed the petition impeaching Corona.

The Court deferred ruling on the separate petition filed Wednesday by Corona seeking to declare null and void the impeachment trial at the Senate, after Velasco inhibited from the case when it was raffled to him.

Marquez said the Court simply required the respondents – the Senate and the House prosecution panel -- to file their comment on Corona’s petition within 10 days. The case was set for re-raffle today.

He said that the justices may be of the belief that there is no urgency in the petition, that’s why they did not issue a TRO.

On the attendance of justices summoned in the impeachment court, Marquez said the high court is still drafting guidelines.

"Let’s wait for the guidelines, but justices already took notice of the ruling of the Senate impeachment court, which denied the request for subpoena of the prosecution," Marquez said.

On the motion of Corona’s lawyers for Carpio and Sereno to inhibit themselves from the case, Marquez said this was not touched upon because the justices decided to wait until the parties have already filed their comments.

IMPEACH THREAT
Private prosecutor Rodolfo Fariňas of Ilocos Norte threatened to impeach the eight justices who voted in favor of the TRO, saying it was another act of encroachment on the exclusive power of Congress to initiate and hear impeachment complaints.

"It’s a collegial act and I will initiate a resolution for impeachment to see if we’ll get the needed votes to impeach the eight justices. Kundi ko makukuha ang one-third, di ko pa-file," he said.

Fariňas said the 188 signatories to the impeachment complaint against Corona "should be consistent and impeach the other eight justices."

Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, a spokesman of the prosecution panel, said Farinas’ plan to impeach the eight justices was a necessary part of "house cleaning."

"Kung ang impeachment ay paglilinis po ng ating bahay o pag-reporma ng mga hindi tamang desisyon, dapat po," he said.

DAY 15
On Day 15 of the impeachment trial, senator-judges failed to get information from PSBank president Pascual Garcia III on the alleged dollar accounts of Corona.

Garcia even cast doubt on the authenticity of the supposed evidence presented by the prosecution bearing the account number 089-19100037-3, the alleged dollar account of Corona with initial deposit of $700,000. The account was supposedly opened on Oct. 31, 2008.

Garcia told the court there were "material differences" between the photocopy of the specimen signature card produced by the prosecution team and the original bank record.

Upon questioning of Senate President pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Garcia said the prosecution’s document "does not come from the original that we hold."

"I will not comment on the so-called documents because based on the original, there are differences. (The document attached to the subpoena) is a facsimile copy. There are material differences," he said.

LEAK
Presiding officer Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is investigating the leakage of the bank documents used by the prosecution.

He directed Garcia to bring before the impeachment court Anabelle Tiongson, manager of the PSBank Katipunan branch where Corona maintains peso deposit accounts amounting to nearly P20 million and allegedly dollar deposits.

"I must tell you that this court is in possession of information regarding the leakage of bank documents and in fact, the BSP is now conducting an investigation regarding this leakage," Enrile said.

"We have to protect the integrity of the bank system. So, bring the manager here to answer questions," Enrile instructed Garcia.

Shown the bank documents used by the prosecution to request for subpoena on Corona’s bank records, Garcia said the documents do not jibe with originals of Corona’s bank deposits.

"In other words, they are fake documents?" Enrile asked again.

"They are not facsimile (photo copy) of the original documents that we have. They must be fake," Garcia replied.
The bank documents, according to the prosecution, were given by an anonymous "small lady" to prosecution member Rep. Reynaldo Umali last week at the Senate grounds.

Estrada asked Garcia if the PSBank branch manager in Katipunan is a small lady.

"She’s not little. She’s tall," Garcia answered.

SECRECY
The impeachment court has already directed Garcia to submit a written explanation for his refusal to divulge Corona’s dollar accounts.

The bank official complied but the court decided to tackle the written explanation next Monday.

After discharging Garcia, the prosecution presented Leonora Dizon, manager of the Bank of the Philippines Ayala branch.

She told the court that as of December 2010, Corona has over P12 million in peso deposits at the bank.

Dizon said Corona has an outstanding balance of P12,024,067.70 as of Dec. 31, 2010 for checking account number 1445-8030-61.

Corona’s deposit in 2010 grew from the previous year’s outstanding balance of P678,501.83 for the same account.

For 2008, the same account had a balance of P1,525,872.87; P5,069,711.18 in 2007; P153,395.12 in 2006; and P 149,767.36 in 2005.

Dizon said the account was opened in 1989.

CORONA SUPPORTERS
Some 7,000 to 8,000 protesters flocked to the Supreme Court on Padre Faura and joined court employees who held a short rally in support of Corona.

The crowd estimate was provided by Supt. Ricardo Layug Jr., Station 5 commander who said the protesters began arriving at around 11 a.m., prompting the police to barricade the entire stretch of Padre Faura.

The crowd spilled to Taft avenue and Maria Orosa street and peaked at around 3 p.m.

The red-clad protesters were mostly members of the religious group Iglesia ni Cristo.

At about 2 p.m., Corona and his wife Cristina showed up in one of the windows on the second floor of the main building and waved at the crowd.

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