MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 4 - 10:07 a.m.) Chief Justice Renato
Corona admitted on Wednesday that he and his wife withdrew millions of
pesos from their accounts in the Philippine Savings Bank Katipunan
branch on December 12, 2011, the day he was impeached in the House of
Representatives, because “we had lost our trust in the bank.”
Responding to a question in an interview in “Unang Hirit” of GMA-7,
Corona said they had known there was a leak in the bank because they
were warned by several friends -- several of them neighbors and
co-depositors in the same branch -- that “people were talking about our
accounts.”
“Ang dahilan n’yan (withdrawals) kasi, nawalan na kami ng tiwala sa
bangko kasi alam naming doon nanggaling ang leak kasi may mga nagsasabi
sa amin (The reason for that is because we had lost confidence in the
bank because we knew that the leak had come from there because we had
been told about it),” Corona said. “Ikaw ba magtitiwala ka
pa sa bangkong ganun, hindi mo ba wi-withdrawhin ang pera mo kung ikaw
ang nasa lugar namin (Would you trust a bank like that, wouldn't you
withdraw your money if you were in our place)?”
At one point, Corona said he was told that “even the branch manager
was talking about it,” but when asked if he was referring to Annabelle
Tiongson, who testified at the impeachment court weeks ago, he said he
didn’t know the person’s name at that time.
During a hearing of the impeachment trial, private prosecutor
Demetrio Custodio said Corona closed at least three PSBank peso accounts
with deposits totaling P32.6 million on the day he was impeached.
These were Account No. 089-121023848, opened on June 29, 2011, with
P17 million; Account No. 089-121019523, opened on Dec. 22, 2009, with
P8.5 million; and Account No. 089-121021681, opened Sept. 1, 2010, with
P7,090,099.45.
Corona claimed the money came from the corporation owned by his
wife’s family, from which he had obtained an P11-million loan, and from
the proceeds of properties they sold.
Asked why he did not declare these in his in his statement of assets,
liabilities and net worth, he said: “Siyempre, kasi hindi naman amin
iyon, sa korporasyon iyon. Ikaw ba ide-declare mo sa SALN mo ang
ari-arian na hindi sa iyo (Of course, because it wasn’t ours, it
belonged to the corporation. Would you declare in your SALN property
that isn’t yours)?”
Corona also claimed sources in Malacanang, where he used to work,
informed him that people were gathering information about his properties
and accounts even before he was impeached.
“Hindi naman tayo parang bulag at saki bingi. Doon sa Malacanang,
matagal din akong nanilbihan, marami akong kaibigan doon,
nagmamagandang-loob, tini-text sa akin na ganito ang galawan dito,
maraming nagre-report sa akin na taga-loob (We weren’t blind or deaf. In
Malacanang, where I served for a long time, I have many friends who,
out of concern, texted me that this was happening here, many from inside
were reporting to me),” he said.
Asked about the controversy involving his wife’s corporation,
Basa-Guidote Enterprise Inc., from which they obtained the loan in 2003,
Corona said the internal squabble within his wife’s family had nothing
to do with his impeachment trial.
He said the wrangling between Cristina and her cousin, Anna Basa, has
been going on for 30 years and has spilled over into the courts. He
also denied pointing a gun at the Basa family’s caretaker, an accusation
made by his wife’s relative.
What should be looked into, he said, was how the family of Jose Basa,
the brother of his mother-in-law, managed to produce a new title for a
huge property in Eastwood, Quezon City that excluded his mother-in-law
from among the owners of the property, estimated to have a current value
of P2 billion.
Corona asserted he can answer squarely all the accusations against
him when the trial resumes March 12, at which time the defense will
start presenting its evidence.
He said the impeachment was part of one big demolition job against him because of his differences with the Executive.
InterAksyon tried to get the reaction of PSBank president Pascual
Garcia III on Corona’s allegation but the bank official refused to take
calls, hanging up several times.
However, in his newly created blog, ‘in my own words,’
Garcia, in an entry on Tuesday, said he was very careful in disclosing
information about depositor’s accounts because this could make the bank
liable under the Bank Secrecy Law.
The entry was written in response to “some of the things people are
saying on the Internet, and some people think I was holding back or
hiding something.”
“From day one, we have declared to the court that we could provide
anything and everything the court asks for, provided that it is within
our bounds to provide it,” he wrote.
He said this was why he limited his answers only to the information
sought by the first subpoena issued by the Senate on February 7. “We
cannot provide anything more than that, because if we do, we will be
violating the confidentiality of our depositors.”
But the succeeding subpoenas on February 9 and 14 gave him more liberty to disclose information on Corona’s bank accounts.
The second subpoena asked for PSBank Katipunan branch manager Annabel
Tiongson to testify, while the last subpoena ordered them to disclose
“any and all peso accounts other than the original ten.”
“I understand that to some onlookers, it appeared that I was holding
back... People have suggested all sorts of possible reasons for this,
but I hope now you can see that the third subpoena lifted the
restrictions which enabled me to give the impeachment court all the
information they required without violating the law,” he said.
The Senate's committee on banks has mounted a separate inquiry into the leakage of Corona's bank accounts.
However, during the probe, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile
suspected Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas examiner Jerry Leal of being the
source of the leak and moved to have him cited in contempt for lying.
(with a report from Joseph Holandes Ubalde, InterAksyon.com)
