Sunday, February 5, 2012

Senate to take up Corona bank records


Senator-judges will decide before the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona resumes Monday afternoon whether to subpoena documents supposedly pertaining to his bank accounts in at least two Philippine banks.
The senators are also expected to discuss whether they would summon several associate justices of the Supreme Court to testify on the tribunal’s flip-flopping on certain cases.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said restrictions on the bank secrecy law would normally prohibit investigators from issuing a subpoena that would require a witness to produce documents related to Corona’s bank accounts.
Prosecutors from the House of Representatives earlier listed five accounts, supposedly owned by Corona, with BPI Family Bank and Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank). But only one bank account on the list provided to Senate reporters had a specific number allegedly traced to Corona.
The prosecutors said Corona’s failure to disclose these in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) made him liable for nondisclosure of assets—an offense specified in Article 2 of the verified complaint against the Chief Justice.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile expressed hesitation when initially asked about the chances of the impeachment court getting the bank documents when the motion for a subpoena was filed.
Enrile, the presiding officer of the impeachment trial, wanted prosecutors to indicate the specific banks accounts they wanted bank authorities to produce in court.
“Do they want us to summon all bank accounts in the whole world?” an annoyed Enrile thought aloud in Filipino at the time. Otherwise, the confidentiality guaranteed by banks would be violated, he said.
A senator-judge, who refused to be identified, said it was possible that the caucus would include a discussion on whether the impeachment court would issue a subpoena for dollar and other foreign currency accounts that may be traced to Corona.
“As far as I know, that would be a sensitive area because that is not really allowed in the case of dollar accounts, while the peso accounts are likely to be subpoenaed,” the senator-judge told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Lawyers of Corona accused prosecutors of resorting to unlawful means by presenting to the Senate “confidential” bank documents in their attempt to subpoena two private banks.

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