Ignore 'fishing expedition,' defense asks impeachment court

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

LAWYERS for impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona have asked the Senate to disregard a request from prosecutors to look into Corona's account at PSBank that won P1 million in a raffle in 2008.

They said the PSBank account, and other bank records being requested, are part of a fishing expedition and are intended to prove ill-gotten wealth, a charge that the impeachment court has ruled it will ignore.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

"This Honorable Court categorically disallowed the prosecution from introducing any evidence relating to said paragraph 2.4 (which alleges ill-gotten wealth hidden in secret bank accounts)," lawyer Dennis Manalo said in his opposition. He said that on that alone, the impeachment court should junk the request for being "irrelevant, immaterial, and disallowed."

He said the prosecution is using the process of subpoena, which will compel the presentation of either testimony or documentary evidence, "in an attempt to possibly uncover more definite leads to evidence (in) a fishing expedition for evidence that is obviously irrelevant and immaterial."

Manalo said that winning a raffle prize does not amount to ill-gotten wealth or graft and corruption.

The prosecution panel on Tuesday asked the impeachment tribunal to issue a subpoenae ad testificandum and subpoena educes tecum to the president or any authorized officer of the PSBank branch in Paseo de Roxas Avenue, Makati City.

The request was filed "in relation to the instant impeachment proceedings for the purpose of proving the allegations in paragraphs 2.2 and 2.3 of the impeachment complaint that respondent failed to declare his assets in his statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth."

According to the request to subpoena, Corona won P1 million in the PSBank monthly millions raffle promo as listed in the official list of winners as of March 13, 2008.

"The PSBank officer is requested to bring original and certified true copies of customer identification and specimen signature cards of the bank accounts under the name Renato Corona, bank statements from the time of opening to January 2012 of the bank account/s under the name Renato Corona, and information on other bank accounts, including time deposits, money market placements, peso or dollar accounts and the like, that are in the name of the Corona couple," it read.

A separate motion also filed by the defense asks the Senate to deny requests to subpoena the manager of the Bank of the Philippine Islands in Ayala Avenue, Makati. They said the prosecution is asking for a subpoena on bank records for an account "that does not correspond or have any relation at all to Exhibits VVV and VVV-1, which indicate a different account number." The opposition, filed by lawyers Manalo and Jose Roy III, said the evidence would also be used to prove ill-gotten wealth, and would therefore be irrelevant.

They said the request for subpoenae is "nothing more than a brazen attempt to introduce irrelevant and immaterial evidence."

The prosecution later filed a manifestation correcting the request for the BPI records. They said an annex showing two BPI checks under Corona's name was not attached "due to inadvertence." It also corrected the account number to 1443-8030-61 from 1445-8030-61. (Jonathan de Santos/Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)