Corona’s peso accounts released despite pending petition

Thursday, February 9, 2012

MANILA -- There was no stopping the prosecution panel from baring the bank accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona after the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) president himself disclosed on Wednesday the multi-million peso accounts of the respondent.

Testifying before the Senate impeachment tribunal despite a pending petition before the Supreme Court (SC), PSBank President Pascual Garcia III revealed the balance of the five peso deposit accounts under the name of Corona.

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For account number 089-121011957, Corona had a balance of P5 million as of December 31, 2007. Ending balance for 2008 and the succeeding years is zero indicating that the account has been closed.

Account number 089-121021681, meanwhile, had an ending balance of P7.15 million as of December 31, 2010. Garcia said the account was opened sometime that year.

The third account 089-121020122 had an ending balance of zero for the years 2009 and 2010. The prosecution team only requested for records on the ending balances for the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The ending balance for the fourth account 089-121019593 increased from P8.5 million in December 2009 to P12.58 million in December 2010.

As of December 2009, the fifth account 089-121017358 had been closed. The witness said it was opened in the same month.

If to be computed, this would mean that Corona had close to P20 million in cash deposits as of December 2010. The amount is four times the amount of the cash declared by Corona in the same year in his SALN. Corona was appointed as Chief Justice in May 2010.

"Nung 2010, tiba-tiba si Chief Justice Corona," prosecution spokesperson Juan Edgardo Angara said after the trial.

In its request for subpoena, the prosecution said the bank accounts "will be highly relevant to the allegation that some of respondent’s assets (including moneys, cash, and funds) were not included in his SALNs."

In his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), Corona declared P2.5 million as "cash and investments" in 2007, P2.5 million in 2008, P2.5 million in 2009, and P3.5 million in 2010.

Earlier, Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares of the Bureau of Internal Revenue testified that Corona earned a gross income of P488,000 in 2007, P604,000 in 2008, P621,000 in 2009, and P657,000 in 2010.

Garcia brought documents of only five of the 10 bank accounts, which have been subpoenaed by the impeachment court, citing criminal liability. The remaining five are all dollar accounts.

Prosecutors said one of Corona’s PSBank dollar accounts had an initial deposit of $700,000 equivalent to around P34 million when it was opened in 2008.

The subpoena issued by the impeachment court was for the PSBank manager of its Katipunan branch but Garcia said he wanted to personally attend the trial out of respect to the impeachment court.

Garcia said this despite a PSBank petition filed before the SC to issue a temporary restraining order saying it is illegal under the Foreign Currency Deposits Act (Republic Act 6426) to open the bank statements without the depositor's written permission.

"We had assessed and determined that the disclosure of these accounts would expose us to criminal liability and we sought guidance to the Supreme Court in a petition made this morning to provide us with guidance," he told the impeachment court.

For his part, lead defense counsel Serafin Cuevas also tried to convince the impeachment court not to touch on Corona's bank records until Tuesday next week since doing so would make their petition moot.

"We went on certiorari (petition for review) before the Supreme Court, raising this particular matter as an issue in our claim of grave abuse of discretion," Cuevas said.

His efforts, however, became futile.

Garcia was directed by the court to appear again on Thursday, which coincides with the special en banc session of the Supreme Court on pleadings related to Corona’s impeachment trial.

Several senators, led by administration ally Franklin Drilon, said the PSBank president should be cited for contempt if his explanation fails to satisfy the court.

Before Garcia’s testimony, the PSBank questioned the legality of the impeachment court’s ruling to summon supposed dollar account records of Corona.

In a 31-page petition, PSBank asked the High Tribunal to issue a TRO against the impeachment court in compelling them to send bank representatives and submit documents on Corona’s five foreign currency accounts.

"It is respectfully submitted that the provision on absolute confidentiality of foreign currency deposits under the Republic Act 6426, or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines, bars any inquiry or examination as to the details of such foreign currency accounts," the bank's petition said.

PSBank also said the implementation of the subpoena issued by the impeachment court for him to testify and bring the said documents could make him liable to possible criminal charges and possible imprisonment for violation of Section 8 of the said law.

"Here, the exposure to criminal liability and imprisonment of petitioner Garcia either for violation of RA 6426 if he discloses any detail on a foreign currency deposit for defiance of the assailed subpoena is irreparable, as it cannot be adequately compensated in an action for damages," the petition read.

Similarly, it claimed that disclosure of the details of Corona's foreign currency accounts might result in the revocation or suspension of the bank's authority to accept new foreign currency deposits by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. (Kathrina Alvarez/Virgil Lopez/AMN/Sunnex)