No absolute secrecy on foreign currency deposits, prosecution argues

Saturday, February 11, 2012

THE impeachment prosecution team, citing a previous Supreme Court (SC) ruling, argued that there is no absolute secrecy on foreign currency deposits as they push to have the alleged dollar accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona be disclosed in the trial.

This is despite of the SC’s issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the subpoena of dollar accounts believed to be under the name of the Chief Justice.

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One of the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) dollar accounts was said to have an initial deposit of $700,000.

“I strongly believe that there is no absolute secrecy of foreign currency deposits despite the seeming strict wordings of the law. No less the than the SC itself has interpreted that there is an exception in the Salvacion case,” Romero Frederico Quimbo, spokesperson for the prosecution panel, said in a text message.

In voting 8-5-2, the SC based its ruling on the Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines, which prohibits banking officials of disclosing any information pertaining to foreign currency deposits except with the permission of the depositor.

“If the SC has found an exception in the past, why then will it prevent the constitutional impeachment court from providing an exception too?” Quimbo remarked.

With the recent issuance of the TRO, ACT Teachers party-list Representative Antonio Tinio has proposed a measure, which would amend law on foreign currency deposits to exempt cases of impeachment. The same amendments are also being considered in the Senate, Senator Ralph Recto earlier said.

For the part of Malacanang, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda believes that foreign currency deposits are not covered by the Foreign Currency Deposit Act but by Republic Act 1405, the Bank Secrecy Law.

Lacierda, a lawyer, said: “In all honesty, we don’t understand why the Bank Secrecy Law does not apply to foreign currency deposits when it fact, it covers all deposits of nature”.

He said there had been an SC decision where it was stated that the Foreign Currency Deposit Act “only applies to non-residents”.

The Senate will hold a caucus on Monday to decide if they will abide by the TRO issued by the SC. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)