Who took Corona’s dollar accounts and why is bigger issue, Sen. Recto says

MANILA, Philippines — The bigger issue on the leaked copies of an alleged Philippine Savings Bank foreign account record owned by Chief Justice Renato Corona was who took the document and why, Senator Ralph Recto said on Tuesday.

He told reporters before the resumption of the trial that “no one is saying that the [account] numbers are fake… [but] assuming they are fake is another issue, who did that [and] why did they do that? Who took [the document] from the bank?”

If proven to be fake, the questions would be how the document was acquired and who was responsible, the senator-judge added.

Asked whether the prosecution team would be liable for the document, in the event that they were proven fake, Recto said, “If it’s proven that they stole it then they are liable.”

But the consequence of the said document being attached to the request for subpoena was unclear, Recto said, considering the prosecution’s statements that an alleged “small lady” handed the document to prosecutor Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali.

“Kung ibinigay [If it was given], I don’t know if there’s a liability, hindi maliwanag [it’s not clear].”

On the issue of the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, issuing a subpoena for the dollar accounts of the embattled chief magistrate, the senator-judge said that they would reserve the “right to explain to the Supreme Court that we did not abuse our authority when we subpoenaed the dollar accounts.”