Corona trial resumes

MANILA, Philippines—The impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona resumed on Thursday with the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) expected to produce the original copy of the chief magistrate’s alleged customer identification and specimen signature card with the bank.

The two documents were attached by the prosecution team in a request for the issuance of subpoena to bank officials and accounts allegedly owned by Corona.

But two PSBank officials—bank president Pascual Garcia III and its branch manager in Katipunan, Quezon City, Anabelle Tiongson—repeatedly told the Senate the documents submitted by the prosecutors were fake.

This prompted the Senate Wednesday to order the bank officials to produce the original copy of the documents to compare it with the ones submitted by the prosecution team.

But Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali, a member of the prosecution team, who got hold of the documents apparently from a “small lady”, insisted that the documents were authentic.

Umali said he compared Corona’s signature in the documents to his signature in the deeds of sale of some of his properties.

“Hindi ko kayang pekeen iyon. Napakagaling ko naman. Hindi ko gagawin iyon assuming na kaya kung gawin iyon,” he said over the phone.

“This is authentic sent to us from heaven. Siguro may mga tao lang talaga na nagmamalasakit sa taumbayan,” Umali added.