Corona closed $ accounts on impeachment day

Chief Justice Renato Coronado Corona withdrew and re-deposited hundreds of thousands of dollars from several bank accounts on the day he was impeached last Dec. 12, 2011, and up to two weeks thereafter.

This shows in documents presented Monday by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to the Senate impeachment court. The bank transactions, if converted, run to the tens of millions of pesos.

The dollars are separate from the tens of millions of pesos that Corona moved around as well from Dec. 12, 2011, up to four weeks later.

Carpio-Morales swore on the witness stand that the papers came from the Anti-Money Laundering Council. In turn, the AMLC got the details from mandatory bank reports of transactions P500,000 (or its foreign currency equivalent) and higher.

On impeachment day alone, Corona pre-terminated a time deposit of $418,193.32 at the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI)-San Francisco del Monte branch in Quezon City. The amount was worth P18,249,956.48 at the average exchange rate of P43.46:$1 in Dec. 2011.

On the same day, the $418,193.32, minus pre-termination penalty, was moved to the BPI Investment Management Inc. (From the documents, it appears that the dollars were placed in the BPI-SFDM time deposit only weeks earlier, on Nov. 29, 2011.)

Also on impeachment day, another $135,359.01 (P5,907,067.19) was withdrawn from the Philippine Savings Bank (PSB)-Katipunan branch, near Corona’s Quezon City residence. It was not clear where the dollars were taken, although sources say it was deposited days later in another bank nearby.

The $135,359.01 is separate from the P37 million that, in testimony last Feb., the PSB president swore Corona also withdrew from three peso accounts in the Katipunan branch, also on Dec. 12. Corona has claimed in a speech that he withdrew the pesos because he had lost trust in the bank manager for allegedly tattling to neighbors about his deposits.

The following day, Dec. 13, 2011, Corona took out $388,771.22 (P16,965,976.04) from the Allied Banking Corp. (ABC)-Kamias branch, also near his Quezon City home. From accompanying entries, it appears that $100,000 (P4,364,000) from this was used to purchase a manager’s check or demand draft or telegraphic transfer.

Two days later, Dec. 15, there were a series of deposits and sales of securities to the same ABC branch, totaling $188,771.22. It apparently came from the original $388,771.22.

In between, on Dec. 13, was an encashment of P6,091,155.45 from the Metro Bank and Trust Co. (MBTC)-New York branch, in Cubao, Quezon City.

Still on Dec. 15 Corona returned to PSB-Katipunan to withdraw $769,681.71 (P33,588,909.82).

On Dec. 19 Corona purchased two manager’s checks/demand drafts/telegraphic transfers from ABC-Kamias. The first was in the amount of $150,000 (P6,519,000); the second, $37,998.09 (P1,651,396.99).

On Dec. 19 and 20 were a series of transactions in the BPI branch in San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City. In one, $687,433.57 (P29,875,862.95) in redemptions (withdrawals) were made from the BPI Investment Management Inc. In another, P36,123,070.28 also was redeemed from the investment fund.

On Dec. 22, Corona moved $350,000 (P15,211,000) overseas from the PSB, but it wasn’t clear which branch. The entry mentioned “ROBIC”, meaning “outward remittance/telegraphic transfer (international) - credit to beneficiary’s account.”

On Dec. 27 Corona withdrew P500,001.50 from BPI-Ayala branch, Makati.

Then came a series of transactions at the BPI-San Francisco del Monte:

• On Dec. 29 were a deposit of P10,000,000 to and an over-the-counter withdrawal of P4,000,000;

• On Jan. 3, 2012, is another over-the-counter withdrawal of P6,000,000;

• On Jan. 4, 2012, there were again a deposit of P10,000,000 and a withdrawal of P5,000,000;

• On Jan. 10 was a withdrawal of P5,000,000;

• On Jan. 11 were again a deposit of P10,000,000 and a withdrawal of P5,000,000;

• On Jan. 12 Corona withdrew P5,000,000; and

• On Jan. 13 is a check deposit and withdrawal of P6,123,510.03.

On Feb. 9, 2012, the last entry in Carpio-Morales’s presentation, there was a withdrawal of P10,000,000 from the Deutsche Bank, AG.

Carpio-Morales said yesterday Ombudsman investigators are analyzing the implications of Corona’s multimillion pesos worth of dollar assets. The Commission on Audit is assisting the anti-graft agency in that effort.

The Ombudsman’s records of Corona’s bank transactions range from Apr. 2003 to Feb. 2012. The Chief Justice supposedly holds $12 million (more than half a billion pesos) in “fresh deposits in 82 accounts in five banks. He declared a net worth of P22.9 million in 2010.

Corona is on trial for, among others, falsifying and hiding his annual Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. The Senate has ruled out any trial for supposed ill-gotten wealth, since this supposedly was faultily and weakly alleged in the articles of impeachment.

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Persons interested in the judicial outcome of some of the worst government scams in the past 12 years might wish to get a copy of Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government. The compilation of my selected columns includes the NBN-ZTE and Diwalwal-ZTE scams, the NAIA-3 construction anomalies, Malacañang’s secret Joint Marine Seismic Understanding with China, and the Gen. Carlos Garcia plunder, among others.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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