Santiago blows top over prosecution's 'fake' docs

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

SENATOR Miriam Defensor-Santiago had to leave the Senate Tuesday for hypertension after she again scolded the prosecution panel, this time for requesting for a subpoena based on documents given them by an anonymous source.

"The issue is that prosecution requested a subpoena on bank accounts they knew nothing about! Why did you do this to the court? Why didn’t you hit your law books?" she told the prosecution panel.

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She was referring to photocopies from an unknown "small lady" that the prosecution attached to its request to subpoena Corona's accounts at Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank).

Bank president Pascual Garcia III and Annabelle Tiongson, manager of its Katipunan, Quezon City branch, have said the documents seemed fake.

Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali said he had been given the documents as he was leaving the Senate on February 2. Footage from the Senate's security cameras found no sign of the so-called small lady.

"First you said 'an anonymous lady told us.' And then you also said you read about (the accounts in the newspaper) and so it is our duty to bring it to the court? Duty my foot! It is your liability! What a disgrace to the system!" Santiago said.

Citing jurisprudence, she said lawyers who submit false documents to the court can be punished.

In a case where the lawyer knowingly submitted fake documents, that lawyer was suspended from practice for three years. Another case involving the unintentional submission of fake documents earned that lawyer a reprimand, she said.

She also lashed out at media for commenting on the proceedings.

"You can only report what happened, you cannot put your opinion. I am so angry because I think so many have violated this," she said in Filipino. "What is the role of media here? Will we just let them do whatever they want in the name of press freedom?"

At one point, she had to pause to ask for the indulgence of Senate impeachment court. "I am hyperventilating," she said.

Santiago's media officer Tom Tolibas said her blood pressure shot up to 170/90 on Tuesday afternoon, up from the average 120/80.

"She was advised by the Senate Medical Services to rest at home," Tolibas said in an e-mail.

Spokespersons of the prosecution, meanwhile, believed the manager of the PSBank in Katipunan had to lie under oath to avoid any liability under the Bank Secrecy Law.

In an interview after Tuesday's trial, Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara said it was understandable for the PSBank branch manager to deny the authenticity of the documents handed over to the prosecution by a "small lady".

"She will really say those documents are fake because if she says it's authentic, they can be held liable under the Bank Secrecy Law," Angara said.

The Bank Secrecy Law states that all deposits of nature are confidential except in cases of impeachment, upon order of a competent court, and upon the written permission of the depositor.

Marikina Representative Romero Frederico "Miro" Quimbo said the bank documents that were turned over to the prosecution by an anonymous source "would only come from the bank."

"The best proof that it came from the bank is that the accounts precisely matched. The bank officials confirmed the existence of the accounts that they were owned by the Chief Justice," he pointed out.

Quimbo said the PSBank, particularly Tiongson, had "every incentive or motivation that the documents are fake because these could only come from them."

In her testimony, Tiongson said that only two persons in their Katipunan branch have the access to open the vault where the bank deposit documents are kept.

The prosecution panel also recalled that they indicated in its request for subpoena that "it cannot vouch for the authenticity of the said documents."

"We need to establish a very important point here: there's no attempt on the part of the prosecution to mislead the impeachment court and the public. If you read our supplemental motion on our request for subpoena for the bank records, we even say with great caution that we cannot vouch for the authenticity of the documents… but they actually turned out to be true," Quimbo clarified. (Sunnex)