BSP denies getting hold of CJ bank documents

MANILA, Philippines - Officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) yesterday told the Senate that they never got hold of the documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona in Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) during and after a regular examination conducted by the BSP on the bank in September 2010.

The possible role of the BSP in the leak of Corona’s PSBank account documents came about after PSBank president Pascual Garcia III testified before the impeachment court that there was an “audit” of the bank in September 2010 and that the Chief Justice’s accounts were among those examined.

Garcia initially told the court that the audit was conducted by the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the BSP but he clarified later that it was not the AMLC but the BSP’s anti-money laundering team that looked into the bank records.

In a hearing conducted by the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies yesterday, BSP officials led by deputy governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said the review conducted by the BSP on PSBank in 2010 was a regular process done to determine the overall financial condition of the bank.

Even though it was just a regular examination, what led Garcia to initially state that it was an audit by the AMLC was due to the presence of an anti-money laundering (AML) expert of the BSP as part of the 14-member examination team.

The AML expert of the BSP turned out to be Jerry Leal, whose name was mentioned by Garcia during one of the hearings last week.

Garcia claimed then and reiterated yesterday that the customer signature cards and identification documents of Corona’s account at the bank’s Katipunan branch were released to the examiner, specifically to Leal.

He claimed that the documents were photocopied from the originals kept by the Katipunan branch and submitted to Leal as required.

Garcia disclosed that there was an email sent by Leal to the head of the examination team, lawyer Elmer Damasco, on Nov. 24 indicating that an advance copy of his findings was provided to the bank for compliance “so that they can prepare for our meeting tomorrow.”

He said that a list of accounts was attached to the email, specifically eight accounts, including that of Corona, that were tagged as politically exposed persons (PEP) and are considered high-risk clients.

Garcia said that based on the email, he believed that the bank had to submit the documents to Leal.

Pressed by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile if he had any evidence to back up his claim that the documents were submitted to Leal, Garcia said that he did not have anything except the email of Leal to Damasco that was copy furnished to them.

Leal categorically denied having accepted any of the documents mentioned by Garcia.

According to Leal, his job was to look into the “covered accounts” or those that have transactions amounting to P500,000 and above as provided for under the Anti-Money Laundering Act and determine if the bank was complying with the reportorial requirements for these accounts.

Leal said that he got 112 sample accounts from the head office and the bank’s Binondo branch and none from the Katipunan branch.

He said that Corona’s account was never the subject of verification because he only looked at the 112 sample accounts.

In Garcia’s testimony at the impeachment court last week, he said that the Chief Justice’s name only came out when PSBank’s former compliance officer Grace de la Cruz informed Leal that Corona won P1 million in a raffle held by the bank in 2008 as one of its valued clients.

Leal said that what he asked from the bank was only to provide the proper PEP tagging on Corona and seven other accounts.

He said that there was no intention to look into Corona’s accounts and that it was “only because of the tagging that we looked into it.”

Espenilla said that the examiners never got to see the original documents held by the bank but only the screenshots of the customer information file where details such as the classification of the client were contained.

He clarified that it was just an electronic copy and did not include the specimen signatures of Corona or the amounts contained in the accounts.

Responding to a question of Sen. Joker Arroyo on why the BSP was performing the functions of the AMLC in looking into the covered accounts under the AMLA, Espenilla explained that Republic Act 9194 or the law amending AMLA gives the BSP the authority to “inquire into or examine any deposit of investment with any banking institution or non-bank financial institution when the examination is made in the course of a periodic or special examination, in accordance with the rules of examination of the BSP.”

The Senate conducted the inquiry as part of efforts to get to the bottom of the alleged leak of the bank documents, which became part of the prosecution panel’s supplemental request for subpoena for information on the accounts of Corona in PSBank.

The prosecution claimed that an anonymous source, described as a small lady by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, gave them the documents.

In separate testimonies, Garcia and PS Bank Katipunan branch manager Annabelle Tiongson claimed that the documents held by the prosecution panel were fake.

Committee chairman Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said that it was not clear at all who the source of the leaked documents was based on the statements of PSBank and BSP.

He said that the hearing would be continued this Thursday.