MANILA – House prosecutors filed Monday their opposition to the defense lawyers' motion to "suppress, exclude and expunge from record" the evidence regarding the bank accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
In a 41-page document signed by lead prosecutor Niel Tupas Jr., the prosecution asked the impeachment court to deny the Corona's motion to suppress illegally-obtained evidence.
The defense was referring to the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) documents allegedly leaked to the prosecutors. The documents, which contained information on Corona's peso and dollar accounts, were used by the prosecution team to subpoena PSBank officials to attend the impeachment trial.
The prosecution panel earlier asked PSBank president Pascual Garcia and Katipunan branch manager Annabelle Tiongson to be summoned by the court based on "Annex A", which was a photocopy of Corona's signature card, and peso and dollar account numbers.
The document, prosecutors claim, were handed to Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali by a "small lady".
Impeachment prosecutors clarified that they never marked Annex A as their evidence and not was it ever presented as evidence in court. They instead presented as evidence the documents, which the PSBank representatives testified to before the impeachment court.
"The prosecution did not present it as evidence because they 'cannot vouch for the authenticity of the documents', which they admitted in their Supplemental Request for Subpoena where it was attached as a mere supporting document," the prosecution said.
The panel argued that the court has not yet determined whether Annex A is a fake document as even the PSBank president admitted that there were similarities with the original copy that was kept in their bank.
"They appear to be similar, Your Honor," Garcia told presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile when asked about the signatures in the photocopied document compared with the original records.
There is an ongoing investigation conducted by the Senate committee on banks and financial institutions on the supposed leaked documents.
The PSBank president also confirmed the existence of the bank accounts—both peso and dollar—which were indicated in the alleged leaked documents.
Documents from PSBank will be used by the prosecution team to prove Article 2 of the impeachment complaint which accuses Chief Justice Corona of betrayal of public trust for his non-disclosure of his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
If the 2010 balances of his accounts are to be computed, the total would have exceeded that of the declared net worth in his SALN.
The defense panel, for its part, said they will explain Corona's accounts in due time. Corona's lawyers are expected to present evidence and witnesses on Article 2 when trial resumes March 12. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)