Bank contests order on Erap records

Allied Bank executives asked the Court of Appeals (CA) yesterday to stop Ombudsman Aniano Desierto from compelling them to reveal and turn over records and bank accounts of deposed President Joseph Estrada.

The commercial bank, owned by businessman and known Estrada ally Lucio Tan, argued that the authority of the Office of the Ombudsman to look into bank records is "not absolute" and that this doesn’t include the so-called Kelvin Garcia account.

Prosecutors are claiming "Kelvin Garcia" is another alias used by Estrada in stashing ill-gotten wealth in bank accounts.

"It is important to point out that the subpoena did not show any relationship or relevance of the Kelvin Garcia account to the charges against Estrada," lawyers Benilda Tejada and Francisco Gerardo Llamas told the appeals court.

This developed as Ombudsman Aniano Desierto vowed yesterday to push through contempt charges against Allied Bank for its officials’ refusal to turn over bank records of the former leader.

"We are now preparing the charges against the officials of Allied Bank. Charges might be filed tomorrow (today, March 15). This despite the fact that we are informed the bank has already filed a petition," he told reporters.

Desierto justified the contempt and obstruction of justice charges can be filed against the bank officials despite a pending question in the appellate court, saying they cannot be prevented from doing so in the absence of any freeze order.

"In the absence of any order of the court preventing us from conducting the investigation then we have to pursue our course of action in order to ensure that our authority to investigate will not be frustrated," he stressed.

So far, 11 of a dozen commercial banks have complied with the order of Desierto where the fallen leader had allegedly stashed his wealth, estimated to be from P10 billion to P15 billion, under the names of his family and mistresses.

The case, which has been raffled off in the sixth division, may be a stumbling block in the Ombudsman’s efforts to get to the root of Estrada’s alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Allied Bank lawyers noted the Ombudsman "refused to show the relevance and the prima facie" and that it "merely relied on its nationalistic duty to ferret out the truth and prosecute Estrada."

"The Ombudsman charter (RA 6770) doesn‘t necessarily give blanket authority to look into or examine foreign and other bank deposits without running afoul with existing laws," a portion of the 32-page petition read.

Allied Bank contested that they are protected by the Foreign Currency Deposits Act.

They manifested that the provision in the Ombudsman charter authorizing to look into bank accounts didn’t cover the "inspection of deposits which are and remain to be privileged in nature."

"Should the CA allow an examination of bank documents, this should be limited only to peso denominated accounts, if existing, and only after the relevancy of said accounts to the subject," bank officials said.

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Margarito Gervacio pointed out earlier that the Estrada accounts are not covered by the secrecy law because the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act is a special law which takes precedence over the Bank Secrecy Act and Foreign Deposits Law.