Geronimo: Barabbas is my hero

SENATE President and Impeachment Court Presiding Officer Juan Ponce Enrile was quoted recently as saying that "the classic case of a wrong survey was the Man on the Cross..." He was reacting to results of Pulse Asia's survey that a significant number of respondents considered Chief Justice Renato C. Corona as guilty.

Bunye: The BSP as Supervisor and Regulator (1st of 2 parts)

ONE of the three pillars of central banking is effective supervision and regulation. The other two pillars are:

1. maintenance of price stability and 2. maintenance of an effective payment and settlement system.

Letter to the editor

Dear editor,

Good Day!

Geronimo: Corona’s Compensation

LAST week’s revelation at the Impeachment Trial by the defense team of Renato C. Corona of the amounts he had received in the form of salaries and allowances for the period 09 April 2002 to 31 December 2011 was an eye-opener.  Not so much because of the amounts, total or itemized, which can arguably be defended as reflecting the honour attached to his office; but more due to the way the payments were structured and denominated.

Bunye: A valuable partner in the banking industry

THE Bankers Institute of the Philippines (BAIPHIL), one of the country’s leading organizations in the pursuit of banking excellence, celebrated another milestone last week.

Geronimo: The real Jerry Leal

WITH no less than the Chief Justice Renato C. Corona stating, during his media blitz last week, that he closed on the day he was impeached his three deposit accounts, amounting to about P37.7 million, with the Philippine Savings Bank (PSB) because he had lost his trust in PSB, the bank’s reputation is in shambles.  His neighbors had told him, said the Chief Justice, that his accounts were being talked about by the bank’s branch personnel.  Like Humpty Dumpty after his great fall, neither by all of the Ty’s horses and all of the Ty’s men, by PSB President Pascual Garcia headed, could PSB’s reputation be put together again.

Bunye: Prosecuting bank fraud

BEHIND every great fortune, according to 19th century French novelist Honoré de Balzac, there is a crime.

For falsifying commercial documents and managing to spirit away close to a million in loans from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), a former owner of a closed rural bank in Quezon province faces more than a decade of imprisonment.

CVCLAW press statement

“IN A media blitz, more suitable of a politician than a sitting magistrate, Chief Justice Renato C. Corona accuses our Firm as behind the alleged ‘black propaganda’ and ‘professional hatchet job’ against him. This happens at the eve of the presentation of his defense in the impeachment trial. Chief Justice Corona claims that the supposed purpose of the propaganda is to pave the way for Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to replace him as Chief Justice.

Geronimo: Augmenting the funds of AMLC

PRESENTLY, the Philippines is in the “grey” list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), or just a shade away from “blacklist.”  And if we do not on time, i.e. by June this year when the FATF holds its Plenary session, sufficiently address the concerns raised by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), of which we are a member, in its 08 July 2009 Mutual Evaluation Report, we will be at peril of being treated as a international pariah, with the cries of “unclean, unclean” constantly resounding in our ears.

Bunye: The BSP policy meeting

THE most eagerly anticipated and closely watched meeting of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is the policy meeting. And for good reason.

Geronimo: Deficiencies of our AMLA

LUCKY for Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, our Anti-Money Laundering Law (R.A. No. 9160, as amended by R.A. No. 9194, or “AMLA”) is severely restricted and not compliant with international standards and best practice, otherwise, he would be in deep you-know-what.

Letter to the Editor: Perspectives of a BuCor Employee

Dear Ma’am,

In light of the recent allegations of Violation of RA 9184, “Chop-chop Procurement”, Cutting historical trees, Illegal transfer of inmates by Mr. Kabugsuan Makilala against General Gaudencio Pangilinan and the Bureau of Corrections, I would like to share my experiences and perspectives as a new and idealistic member of the Bureau.

Bunye: Money laundering history

MANY of us have probably heard of the term money laundering and wondered what it really is.

Geronimo: Bank Secrecy is passe'

THAT the Impeachment Court trying the charges against Chief Justice Renato C. Corona was not persuaded to look into the magistrate's dollar accounts at the Philippine Savings Bank was not due to the ineptness of the prosecution nor to the savvy of the defense. Instead, it was due to regime of bank secrecy in the Philippines, now increasingly becoming outmoded elsewhere.

Bunye: ‘Guarding against email fraud’

HAVE you ever received an e-mail from your bank or credit card company that looks like the “real thing”?

Geronimo: Marcos, not Congress, authored dollar secrecy rule

THE original text of Section of 8 of RA 6426, an act instituting a foreign currency deposit system in the Philippines, relating to the secrecy of bank deposits reads as follows:

Bunye: Overspending and budgeting

IN THE last month, I have been writing about the efforts of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Financial Consumer Affairs Group (FCAG) in disseminating helpful consumer tips, especially in light of post-holiday debts.

Geronimo: The Crux of Article II

PERHAPS, now that more than a dozen days have elapsed and almost everything that could be said have been said about Article II of the Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Renato C. Corora, it is appropriate for us onlookers, so as not to lose sight of the forest by reason of being too focused minutely at the trees, to go back to the relevant text of the Constitution relating to the grounds of impeachment.  The text of Section 2, Article XI, relates as the only grounds for impeachment of Members of the Supreme Court, “culpable violation of the constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust.”

Bunye: Dealing with holiday debt

HAVE you experienced the classic "holiday debt hangover"?

The Financial Consumer Affairs Group (FCAG) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said this type of hangover is usually experienced during the months following the Yuletide season -- when the shopping, parties and gift-giving have practically drained most of your financial resources.

Geronimo: The horrible style of Article II

THE heading of Article II of the Impeachment Complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona, in all caps and in bold, states: "RESPONDENT COMMITTED CULPABLE VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION AND/OR BETRAYED THE PUBLIC TRUST WHEN HE FAILED TO DISCLOSE TO THE PUBLIC HIS STATEMENT OF ASSETS, LIABILITIES AND NET WORTH AS REQUIRED UNDER SEC. 17, ART. XI OF THE 1987 CONSTITUTION."

Bunye: New year financial resolutions

IT IS almost the end of January—and only eleven more months until we make a new set of New Year’s Resolutions. How time flies indeed!

So have you made your own list of “financial” resolutions yet? If you haven’t, you still have time to do so.

Geronimo: Viva Vidal

SUPREME Court Clerk of Court, lawyer Enriqueta Esguerra Vidal, deserves everyone’s congratulations and the country’s gratitude. She demonstrated last January 18th during her testimony before the impeachment court trying the case against Chief Justice Renato C. Corona that she was, in the manner of St. Thomas More, the court’s good servant, but the law’s first.

Bunye: The BSP’s Bottom Line

THE business pages of last week’s newspapers carried articles about the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) posting a net loss of P23.62 billion in the first three quarters of 2011.

Geronimo: Betrayal of Public Trust - Views from the High Court

LOOKING to the decisions so far rendered by the Supreme Court to shed light on the meaning of “betrayal of public trust”, as a ground for impeachment, is not very encouraging.  Despite the many cases mentioning the phrase, no decision can be pointed to that fixes its precise metes and bounds.  

Examples of breach of trust abound, such as engaging by a public official in a marital relationship with a private contractor bidding for projects handled by his office, or borrowing by a superior officer of money at concessional rates from a subordinate and thereafter refusing to pay the debt contracted and offering the subordinate support for her promotion, but no case have I found that deals precisely on what constitutes betrayal by an officer removable only by impeachment and conviction.

Geronimo: Betrayal of Public Trust - the framers' intent

SEVEN of the eight articles of impeachment filed against Chief Justice Corona cite as basis "betrayal of public trust". What exactly is "betrayal of public trust"?

Geronimo: En Garde, Grim Reaper

THE loudest noise I could make last New Year's Eve, I directed at the Grim Reaper. Not because at age past retirement, I had, in fact, began to see, as Douglas McArthur termed it, the “deepening shadows of life”. But rather, because the Grim Reaper, for the year 2011, had been doing his thing too conspicuously and too often in my limited circle of friends and associates.

Geronimo: A modern manger of Bethlehem

IT SEEMED like one of the fictional vignettes in the ancient collection of birth narratives of Matthew or Luke. But no, this one is from a contemporary chronicler, the International Herald Tribune, and, I have no reason to believe otherwise, in fact true.

Bunye: Were there banks during the time of Jesus?

YULETIDE is undeniably the busiest time of the year.

You know that ‘tis the season when the lines are unusually long at the banks and at the automated teller machines: People are extra generous with their earnings and buy gifts for their family, friends and colleagues in the spirit of Christmas.

Geronimo: The Fallen Star of David

HE DESCENDED like a shooting star, initially seemingly very slowly approaching according to some preordained trajectory, then soon enough gathering speed upon entry into the atmosphere, and finally as it appeared to be touching the mountain peaks, burning out and exiting the evening stage as nothing more than a whiff of smoke in the December sky.

Bunye: Jose Rizal Commemorative Coin

IT IS a gift befitting a hero of his stature.

For his 150th birth anniversary, our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal received a special gift in the form of the one-piso commemorative Rizal coin.