Corona’s bank documents not fake, Ilocos Norte Rep. Farinas insists

Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo Fariñas. https://www.congress.gov.ph/

MANILA, Philippines – Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo C. Farinas insisted that there was no falsification when they submitted the allegedly fake bank documents in the name of Chief Justice Renato Corona as basis for the issuance of subpoenas.

“Falsification is when you make it appear that it is true when it is not,” Farinas said.

Farinas said that Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali could not be charged because he made no claims that the document was true.

Umali clearly stated that he only received a photocopy of the bank documents from the Philippine Savings Bank (PS Bank) through a “small lady” and it was also indicated in their request for subpoena that they could not vouch for their authenticity, Farinas said.

PSBank president Pascual Garcia and PSBank Katipunan branch manager Annabelle Tiongson testified that the document did not come from their bank, prompting the senator-judges to question the prosecution how they obtained it.

Farinas said that what they were only saying was there were differences in the appearance of the document, “but if its contents are the same, it would not be important.”

It will be up to the other agencies of government, like the Department of Justice, to investigate if there were violations of the Bank Secrecy law or if there were falsification of documents, Farinas said.

He added that they could have just specified the account numbers in that document if they knew it was spurious, but since they wanted to show “the whole truth”, they attached it in their request for subpoena.