MANILA, Philippines—The impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona resumed on Thursday with the president of Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) expected to continue his testimony.
The Senate sitting as an impeachment court suspended its proceeding Wednesday night while waiting for a written explanation from PSBank president Pascual Garcia III why he did not bring to the special court other bank documents requested by the prosecution team.
During Wednesday’s proceeding, Garcia produced only the records of five of 10 bank accounts in the name of the Chief Justice. The five were local currency deposits– two accounts had an ending balance of P12.5 million and P7.1 million or close to P20 million as of December 31, 2010.
And when asked why he did not bring the records of other five accounts, the witness then cited the law on foreign deposits, saying he might be criminally liable if he discloses the details of the five accounts.
Corona allegedly owned a dollar account in PSBank with an alleged initial deposit of $700,000 or P30 million.
The Senate ruled last Monday to allow the opening of dollar deposits, citing past decisions by the Supreme Court where it supposedly “relaxed the rules on absolute confidential nature of bank deposits, even foreign deposit accounts.”
“The majority is of the view that the present impeachment proceeding presents a valid exemption to the general rule on confidentiality of information on bank accounts for foreign currency banks accounts,” said the resolution read by Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.