Prosecution asked: Who leaked bank documents?

MANILA, Philippines - After the impeachment court agreed to subpoena the alleged bank accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona, senator-judge Francis Escudero asked the prosecution panel to disclose the details on how they were able to obtain the documents.

Escudero raised his concern about a possible violation of the bank secrecy law with the release of the documents and their subsequent delivery to the prosecution panel.

Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, the lead prosecutor for the impeachment trial, explained that he received the documents last Thursday evening from Misamis Oriental Rep. Reynaldo Umali at a hotel along Roxas Boulevard.

Umali said that the documents were contained in a brown envelope and were handed to him by a “short lady” while he was still at the Senate.

According to Umali, he was about to leave the Senate when the lady handed over the envelope to him.

He said that he did not know the lady and could not recall what she looked like.

Umali said that he went to the Department of Public Works and Highways to follow up on his projects before proceeding to the hotel, where Tupas was.

“There was no intention to violate (the bank secrecy laws). I guess this was an action taken by a concerned citizen who wanted this thing out,” Umali said.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III suggested that the tapes of the closed circuit television cameras be reviewed to try and find out who the lady referred to by Umali was.

Earlier, the camp of Corona asked the Senate impeachment court to require the prosecution panel and two newspaper columnists to disclose the source of their documents purportedly showing the dollar accounts of Corona and his family.

This developed as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) called on the impeachment court not to allow the prosecution panel to resort to a “fishing expedition” in the trial of the chief magistrate.

In a consolidated opposition and rejoinder, the defense opposed the request of the prosecution for the Senate to issue a subpoena to the branch manager of Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) Katipunan and the records pertaining to 14 dollar accounts of Corona.

The prosecution attached several documents, including photocopies of the customer identification and specimen signature cards of Corona, his daughter Carla Corona-Castillo and her husband Constantino Castillo III.

Among the information contained in those documents were details of initial deposits amounting to $700,000 and $7,301.

According to the prosecution, they secured the documents from an anonymous source.

The defense panel pointed out that Republic Act 6426 or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act prohibits the disclosure of any information relating to a bank account of any depositor.

“Given the absolute confidentiality of an FCD (foreign currency deposit), complainants’ (prosecution) possession of unauthenticated signature cards and application and agreement for deposit account of the purported bank accounts, which were attached to their supplemental request as Annexes ‘A’ to ‘A-4,’ is apparently illegal,” the defense stated.

They argued that the documents were obtained from an illegal source, “an act punishable under RA No. 6426 as amended.”

Given the illegal means by which the documents were secured, the defense panel argued that these are inadmissible as evidence as they partake of the “fruit of the poisonous tree washed clean the tree itself.”

Apart from opposing the production of the bank documents for the court, the defense panel also asked the court to compel the prosecution to disclose immediately the source of their documents.

They added that columnists Jake Macasaet (Malaya Business Insight) and Conrado Banal (Philippine Daily Inquirer), who came out with articles citing the same bank documents, also provide the court with the sources of their information.