Senate impeach court allows fishing expedition—Corona lawyers

MANILA, Philippines—The Senate impeachment court in effect allowed fishing expedition when it granted the request of the prosecution to issue subpoena to bank records of Chief Justice Renato Corona, his defense lawyers said in a petition.

In the petition asking to nullify the impeachment proceedings, Corona’s defense lawyers led by former Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas said the document attached by the prosecution team did not come from a legitimate source thus it must be disallowed by the court.

During Monday’s hearing, Rep. Reynaldo Umali, a member of the prosecution team said the bank documents were given to him at the Senate Secretariat’s Office by a “small lady” that he does not know.

Prosecution spokesman Rep. Romero Quimbo on the other hand said the documents were “mysteriously found” in the office of the prosecution team at the Senate.

Senator-judge Francis Escudero also during Monday’s hearing said the source of the prohibited documents including Customer Identification and Specimen Signature Card of the Chief Justice, Account Opening Form is violating Republic Act 6426 or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act.

“In this case, there was hardly any independently obtained evidence that would point to the bank accounts object of the subpoenae sought—the pertinent information here was gathered by means of the fishing expedition permitted by the Impeachment court,” the petition of the Chief Justice said.

“The attention of the Honorable Court is drawn to the fundamental illegality of the subpoenae. Since the submission of absolutely confidential documents as the basis for the Supplemental Request for Subpoenae is an illegality, the prohibited possession by the prosecution of the submitted documents cannot be the basis for the issuance of any subpoena.”

Unfortunately, the defense team said the “Impeachment court was content to elicit any explanation the prosecution had to offer. This is a travesty of law and justice.”

They echoed the arguments raised by PS Bank in their separate petition saying the only exception provided under the Foreign Currency Deposit Act is the account can be opened and examined only upon written permission of the depositor.