SC issues TRO on Senate subpoena

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) issued this afternoon a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the Senate from implementing its subpoena that compelled the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) to send a representative and submit documents on Chief Justice Renato Corona’s five foreign currency accounts.

Voting 8-5, the SC justices ruled in favor of the PSBank's petition for a TRO, which was filed yesterday.

The ruling came even as some members of the the Senate reiterated that the SC could not intervene in the rulings made by the legislative's upper chamber as an impeachment court.

SC spokesman Midas Marquez, meanwhile, announced that the justices failed to tackle the petition filed by their own colleague, Corona, which asks the high court to stop the Senate's impeachment proceedings.

Marquez explained that Corona's petition was raffled to Associate Justice Presbiterio Velasco, who inhibited from handling the petition as his son is a member of the House of  Representatives.