Miriam asks Senate to reconsider subpoena on bank records

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

MANILA--Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed a motion to have the Senate reconsider its decision Monday to subpoena bank officers and records from the Bank of the Philippine Islands and PSBank. She said bank deposits are only mentioned in a paragraph in Article II that alleges ill-gotten wealth; the Senate has already ruled against introducing any evidence for that.

"It appears that the subpoena would violate this Court’s own ruling that evidence shall not be allowed on ill-gotten wealth," she said.

She also said the subpoenae for Corona's dollar accounts with PSBank would also violate the Foreign Currency Deposit Act which only allows the examination of foreign-currency accounts when the owner gives written consent. "This is the only exception, and it is not present in this case," Santiago, a former trial judge said.

"The majority is of the view that the present impeachment proceedings present a valid exception to the general rule on confidentiality of information on bank accounts even for foreign currency bank accounts," the impeachment court said Monday.

Santiago added cases in jurisprudence that the prosecution cited to justify the issuance of the subpoenae "are off-tangent." (Jonathan de Santos/Sunnex)