BSP examiner courts Senate contempt for lying

MANILA, Philippines — An examiner of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been ordered to show cause why he should not be cited in contempt for lying during a hearing by the Senate committee on banks, financial institutions and currencies Thursday.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile moved to cite  Jerry Leal in contempt for saying that he had no possession of photocopies of signature cards of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“I am convinced that this man is lying,” Enrile said during the hearing. “In all my years of law practice, I know when a person is lying,” he said.

Leal said during the hearing that he had never asked for documents pertaining to the accounts of Chief Justice Corona. “I only asked the bank to tag the account of Chief Justice Corona [as a Politically-Exposed Person or PEP] electronically,” Leal said.

Enrile said that in a previous hearing, Leal had been denying he had accessed the photocopy of signature cards of Corona.

“Mister Leal was caught lying. Before, he said he never saw the signature card, it was never given to him, and today he admitted that he was shown the machine copies of Chief Justice Corona’s signature cards,” Senator Sergio Osmena said in a press briefing after the committee hearing.

Leal was the bank examiner who audited the bank records of Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank). Pascual Garcia III, PSBank president, said that Leal asked for documents regarding a number of accounts in PSBank, including Corona’s signature cards.

Garcia said that the documents were turned over to Leal on November 25, 2010 during a meeting that was arranged the day before, but Leal claimed that he had never received the documents and merely inspected them within the premises of the PSBank head office.

“He tried to avoid admitting that he received copies of the signature cards of … Chief Justice Corona,” Osmena said. “It was only today that he admitted that he saw the copies of the signature cards but said he left the machine-copy in the office of the PSBank where he was doing the examination.”

The Senate committee on banks conducted the hearing in relation to the alleged leaked signature cards of Corona containing peso and dollar accounts numbers that was submitted to the Senate impeachment court by the prosecution team.

Senator Osmena said that the entire committee would review Enrile’s motion before they make a ruling. Another hearing will be set for next week, Osmena said.