Senators decide today on Supreme Court TRO

MANILA, Philippines - Senator-judges in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona will hold a caucus today to decide whether to reverse or not a Senate resolution respecting the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court on Corona’s dollar accounts at Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank).

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III filed a motion asking the impeachment court to reconsider its 13-10 decision to respect the SC’s TRO, which barred the opening of Corona’s dollar accounts.

PSBank president Pascual Garcia III had claimed in the early part of the impeachment trial that Corona has five dollar accounts.

Senators will also decide if there is a need to invite bank managers to authenticate the purported bank accounts of the Chief Justice mentioned in a 17-page Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report presented by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales when she testified last week.

Morales told the Senate impeachment court that Corona is keeping 82 dollar accounts with P10 million “transactional balance” from 2003 to 2011.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan has asked Corona to divulge his dollar accounts.

“If Chief Justice Corona refuses on the witness stand to have his dollar accounts opened for the scrutiny of the senator-judges, we will be left with no choice but to set aside the previous vote to respect the Supreme Court TRO on these accounts and compel PSBank to open up these accounts in the trial,” he said.

“The verdict in this trial rests primarily on determining whether or not these dollar accounts exist. It is the duty of the impeachment court to seek the truth even if it means disregarding a TRO by the Supreme Court,” Pangilinan added.

But defense spokesperson Karen Jimeno said it was PSBank, not the Chief Justice, that cited the provisions of the Foreign Currency Deposit Act when they sought the intervention of the SC.

“So it is the obligation of PSBank to ensure that they abide by the Bank Secrecy law. They wanted to know how they would recognize their obligation in relation to the issue of impeachment. So there was a question of law. That’s why they brought it to the Supreme Court,” Jimeno said.