‘Fake or illegal’ bank records won’t affect merits of Corona case—defense

MANILA, Philippines – Whether or not the bank documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona being presented before the impeachment court are fake or illegally obtained will not have any implication on the merits of his case, his lawyers said Thursday.

In a press briefing, Karen Jimeno said these pieces of evidence, particularly the photocopy of Corona’s alleged bank records presented by the prosecution, would not be used by the senator-judges when making their final decision.

“Wala pa namang [There are no] implication sa [on the] merits, dahil [because] these [pieces of] evidence will not be the ones used when the senator judges make a decision,” Jimeno said, adding, “Wala pa tayo sa [We’re not even in the] formal offer of evidence.”

The defense added that the prosecution could even be held liable if it could be proven that these documents were falsified or leaked.

“Paano napunta sa prosecution ang isang illegal na dokumento? Siguro maaaring tanungin din natin ang mga ganyang bagay [How did the prosecution acquire these illegal documents? I guess we can also ask these matters],” lawyer Rico Paolo Quicho said.

“Malinaw sa batas ang pananagutan ng kahit sino man, kung sino mang tao ang makakuha ng ganitong dokumento na ipinagbabawal ay mayroon silang pananagutan [It is clear in our laws that whoever gets a copy of these illegal documents will have criminal liability),” Quicho added.

During the hearing, Senator-Judge Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada showed Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) President Pascual Garcia III a photocopy of bank records supposedly coming from their bank which the prosecution claimed they received from a certain “Small Lady”.

Estrada asked Garcia to confirm whether the documents were from their bank and if they were photocopies of their authentic bank documents.

Garcia said he could not say if the document were valid, adding that he saw some discrepancies with their own bank documents.

“There seem to be some differences on the document from the original. I cannot determine if this document is from the bank,” he told Senator Estrada.