Umali, Banal called ‘lawbreakers, thieves’

by Christine F. Herrera

SENATOR-Judge Miriam Defensor Santiago on Monday suggested that the prosecution panel members in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona were “law breakers and thieves” for possessing illegally obtained copies of his bank records.

Also at Monday’s hearing, the president of Philippine Savings Bank, Pascual Garcia, testified that an auditor from the Anti-Money Laundering Council had targeted Corona’s Katipunan branch account and had inspected his bank records in 2010---opening the possibility that the leaked bank documents might have come from the government itself.

Citing provisions of the Foreign Currency Deposit Act, Santiago said it was illegal for foreign account records to be examined or looked into by anyone other than the account owner.

She also said that under the rules of court, if a person was in possession of evidence that is the product of a wrongful act, he was considered the doer of the whole act.

Both Reps. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro and Jorge Banal of Quezon City admitted that they received photocopies of the bank documents from anonymous sources, and the prosecution panel eventually attached those in its petition to subpoena Corona’s bank records in his impeachment trial.

“I want to manifest that according to the timeline, Congressman Banal received a photocopy from an anonymous source on January 31. He has no clue where it came from. On February 2, Umali also received the same photocopied document and he has no clue where it came from,” Santiago said.

In his testimony this week, Banal admitted he approached the branch manager of PSBank’s Katipunan branch, Annabelle Tiongson, to gain more information on the signature cards.

“If found in his possession, he cannot say there was no evidence that he took the signature cards. He was the thief of the signature cards,” Santiago said.

“The law is very, very strict. When he is asking for information on a certain foreign currency account that does not belong to him, he is violating the law. When he entered the bank and asked for a certain foreign account, he was already violating the law,” Santiago said, referring to Banal.

Responding to Santiago’s question, Tiongson said she was shocked to learn that Banal was in possession of the photocopied documents that resembled their records.

“It is confidential, your honor. That’s why I was so shocked,” she said, adding that she alerted her superiors about Banal’s visit and inquiry that evening.

At a meeting with the branch staff, PSBank president Pascual Garcia ordered the Corona documents transferred to the bank’s head office for safekeeping.

In her manifestation, Santiago also chided the lawmakers for accepting information from anonymous sources.

“We don’t just accept a piece of paper,” she said, noting that it could be an illegally obtained document.

“If you cannot explain how you got the document, then you must have stolen it.”

Upon questioning by Presiding Judge and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Tiongson said Banal had waited for her to finish attending to two clients, and that the congressman stayed in the bank for about 10 to 20 minutes.

When she asked Banal where he got the bank records, Banal said he would tell her if she would help him confirm the existence of Corona’s dollar account.

When Tiongson refused and cited the “absolute confidentiality” of the bank records, Banal sought her help “in a personal capacity.”

Santiago commended Tiongson for protecting the confidentiality of the accounts and reminded the court on the penalties for violating the Foreign Currency Deposit Act:one to five years in jail or a fine.

In the House, sessions were suspended due to a lack of quorum. Some 100 lawmakers trooped to the Senate to provide “moral support” to Banal, who was invited by the impeachment court to shed light on Tiongson’s revelations, but the congressman was not called to testify again.

The chairman of the ethics committee, Bohol Rep. Erico Aumentado, said his panel would investigate Umali and Banal for their possession of illegally obtained documents if the Senate impeachment court recommended administrative sanctions against them.

“So far, the ethics committee has no plans yet, especially at this time when the Senate impeachment trial is ongoing,” Aumentado told the Manila Standard.

“We will have to wait for the Senate to recommend what course of action to take.”

In his testimony on Monday, PSBank’s Garcia said the Anti-Money Laundering Council had inspected Corona’s bank records as early as 2010.

Garcia recalled that the council’s auditor had examined the specimen signature card and alerted the bank that it should be marked as belonging to a “politically exposed person.”

He also said the bank had provided photocopies of the bank records to the auditors.

Under questioning by some senator-judges, Garcia insisted that there were significant differences between the records the bank held and the photocopies submitted by the House prosecutors, which he said were “spurious.”

The defense panel on Monday asked the impeachment court to expunge from the records the evidence on Corona’s alleged peso and dollar bank accounts, which they said were based on the use of “fake and spurious documents.”

It argued that any evidence acquired from fake and spurious documents would only be “fruits of a poisonous tree,” as they were illegally obtained and inadmissible in court. With John Anthony Concepcion and Maricel Cruz