High Court defers anew to issue injuction on impeach trial

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

COLLEAGUES of Chief Justice Renato Corona failed to decide anew whether to stop the Senate impeachment court from proceeding with the trial, which is now looking into his hefty bank deposits that allegedly contradicted his net worth.

While mum on the details of Tuesday's en banc session, Supreme Court (SC) spokesperson Midas Marquez advised the public to just wait for the Court to make up its mind on Corona's petition.

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"There is no resolution yet," he said in a text message.

A source, meanwhile, said the Court just "noted" the supplemental petition filed last Monday by Corona’s lawyers, who accused four senators allied with the administration and even Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano of helping the prosecution squeeze out documents and testimonies.

Tasked to pen the decision is Associate Justice Martin Villarama, who joined seven other magistrates last week in the issuance of the temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Senate from opening the dollar accounts of the Chief Justice at the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank).

PSBank filed the petition as it cited Republic Act 6426, or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines, which disallows the disclosure of dollar accounts without the written permission of the depositor.

But this was opposed by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who said in an opinion that the majority ruling committed a “mockery of all existing laws designed to ensure transparency and good governance in public service.”

If that’s the case, Carpio said the all government officials and employees can just legally evade reporting their actual assets in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), by simply opening foreign currency deposit accounts with local banks.

“The world will now know that Philippine foreign currency deposit accounts provide a much better safe haven for ill-gotten wealth than Swiss bank accounts. Former President Ferdinand Marcos was wrong in depositing hundreds of millions of US dollars in Swiss bank accounts. Had he deposited, even in his own name, the money in foreign currency accounts with local banks…, he would have gotten away with his loot under the ruling of the majority,” he said.

Corona’s petition was originally raffled to Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. but he inhibited from the deliberations since his son, Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco, voted for the Chief Justice’s ouster at the House of Representatives last December 12.

Under the internal rules of the Supreme Court, a TRO can only be considered upon the recommendation of the justice to whom the petition was raffled.

The Senate and House prosecution panel were earlier tasked to file their comments on Corona’s petition within 10 days or until February 23.

Also, Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Aquino's latest appointee to the High Court, became the justice-in-charge in the petition filed by PSBank, a subsidiary of the country's second largest lender Metrobank.

Bernabe, who voted together with four justices against the issuance of the TRO last week, is on official leave to attend a weeklong assembly of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Law Association in Bali, Indonesia.

Formed in 1979, ALA brings together in one roof all the different branches of the law profession which include judges, law teachers, law practitioners, and government lawyers to promote close relations and cooperation among 10 countries in Southeast Asia. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)