Palace: Closing of CJ bank accounts a sign of guilt

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Renato Corona’s closing of his three time deposit accounts worth a total of P36.5 million on the day he was impeached on Dec.12 last year was “certainly suspicious” and could signify guilt, Malacañang said yesterday.

“The timing is certainly suspicious. If you remember, the impeachment was on a Monday, I think, done on a Monday, but Sunday they had already released – the court administrator had already released a statement denouncing the impeachment that has not yet happened. So the timing is certainly suspect, which was also stated by Sen. (Jinggoy) Estrada on the floor,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a press briefing. “And it is something again that will have to be explained by the defense.”

At the same time, Valte defended Quezon City Rep. Jorge “Bolet” Banal who asked Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) branch manager Annabelle Tiongson for help in authenticating a photocopy of what appeared to be a signature card for a dollar account in the bank belonging to one Renato Corona.

“It was obvious that Congressman Banal was being upfront about what had happened, and he essentially confirmed the statement of Ms. Tiongson,” Valte said. “I believe the senators will pose questions to Congressman Banal on Monday. Let us just wait as to what the questions will be because I think precisely those kinds of questions (on whether his claims were believable or not) surfaced because of his explanation.”

Banal admitted he had asked Tiongson’s help in verifying a signature card he claimed to have found on the gate of his house two days before a “small lady” handed what appeared to be similar documents to Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, a member of the prosecution team, at the Senate.

Valte said the developments on Thursday proved that the bank accounts of Corona were authentic and that it would be up to the impeachment court to determine whether they were “fruits of the poisonous tree” as claimed by the camp of Corona.

‘Clear sign of guilt’

The House prosecution panel also said Corona’s emptying of his bank accounts on the day the House of Representatives impeached him “is a clear sign of guilt.”

“We are appalled by this latest development. The fact that he withdrew P36.7 million on Dec. 12, 2011, the same day the House impeached him, tends to show that there was an attempt on his part to conceal his deposits,” panel spokesman Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo said.

“The gap between his income and wealth is getting wider. We believe that it is a chasm that can no longer be bridged by alibis and excuses. But as we’ve said again and again, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

Corona’s camp claimed the money withdrawn belonged to Basa-Guidote Enterprises, a corporation owned by the family of Corona’s wife Cristina.

“This is a clear sign that Mr. Corona is guilty of concealing huge banks deposits,” Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, also a spokesman for the prosecutors, said.

“The P17 million in just one deposit represents about 30 years of his pay as Supreme Court justice based on the documents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The only way he can justify this huge stash, aside from being perhaps a repeat winner in PSBank raffle, is that he was a secret Lotto winner,” Tañada said.

Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, another prosecution spokesman, expressed suspicion that Corona converted his riches to dollar deposits to keep these beyond the reach of the law and scrutiny.

PSBank was able to obtain a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court on the subpoena of the Senate of the bank records of the Chief Justice’s reported dollar accounts.

“The Chief Justice may not know ethics but he knows his law. As a multiple account holder well-versed in banking practices, he knows that a legal firewall fences foreign currency deposits. That is why, as his impeachment loomed, he closed his peso deposits as these were no longer safe havens of his unexplained wealth,” Angara said.

An official of the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier told the Senate impeachment court that the family corporation of Corona’s wife had been dissolved and ceased to legally exist as of 2007.

On Thursday, PSBank president Pascual Garcia III and Tiongson, manager of PSBank-Katipunan, told the impeachment court of Corona’s closing of his bank accounts.

Based on Pascual’s testimony, two of the peso accounts had a combined balance of P19.7 million as of Dec. 31, 2010.

On the other hand, the manager of Bank of the Philippine Islands-Ayala Avenue, Makati City branch earlier told the impeachment court that Corona had a single account with the bank with an end-2010 balance of P12 million.

Quimbo said the Chief Justice did not declare his total deposits of P31.7 million in PSBank and BPI in his 2010 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

“CJ Corona and his wife bought condo units in Taguig and Makati City in 2004, 2005 and 2009, which the Chief Justice did not declare in his SALN for those years. He declared them only in 2010,” he said.

“Clearly, there is a pattern of concealment and dishonesty on his part, whether the assets are bank deposits or condo units,” he stressed. – With Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero