Bank Subpoena Alarming - Enrile

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile warned Thursday that the House prosecution panel is treading on dangerous ground when it asked the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, to order banks to submit the supposed bank accounts of impeached Chief Justice Renato C. Corona and his wife, Cristina.

“Yung bank records, bank accounts, dapat sabihin kung anong bank accounts yun. Hindi puwedeng i-subpoena ang mga records ng lahat ng bangko sa Pilipinas na hindi naming alam na mayroon bank account yung respondents. Delikado yun.

Dangerous yun sa mga taong-bayan,” Enrile said. (“The prosecution must state the bank account number. It is not right for the Senate to subpoena the records of all banks in the Philippines without us knowing the bank account numbers of the respondents.

That’s dangerous for the people.”) “To be fair, they (prosecution) have to specify (the bank account number),” Enrile said. Bank account holders in the Philippines are protected by the Bank Secrecy Act.

However, the request for subpoena on bank accounts was withdrawn by the House prosecution panel after the impeachment court ruled to disallow the presentation of evidence on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Corona, a stray complaint in the eight-article impeachment charge, that the defense panel had vigorously objected to.

But the prosecution panel, headed by Iloilo Rep. Niel C. Tupas Jr., reserved the “right of the prosecution to file the appropriate request for specific bank accounts of Renato C. Corona and Cristina R. Corona at the appropriate time.’’

Enrile also recalled that at one point, the Senate was asked to issue a subpoena requiring “this subdivision, these developers to bring all their records regarding their development projects.”

“Should the subpoena include engineering plans, architectural plans, including sanitation plan? Should these be brought to the Senate? There are no specifications,” he asked.

The prosecution had asked for these records to support its claim that the Chief Justice had amassed ill-gotten wealth, which consists of buying real estate properties disproportionate to the financial capabilities of the Corona family and of having big bank accounts.