Defense opposes prosecution request for subpoena of Coronas’ bank accounts

MANILA, Philippines – The defense team on Wednesday filed an opposition to the prosecution’s request for the issuance of subpoena to require officials from PS Bank to testify and produce documents pertaining to the accounts of Supreme Court Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona and wife Cristina.

The six-page opposition filed Wednesday said that the prosecution’s request for “monthly bank statements from the time of opening up to January 2012; and other bank accounts, including time deposits, money market placements, peso/dollar accounts and the like, in the name of Renato Corona and / or Cristina Corona,” was “akin to acting on suspicion, rumor or reports and other such similar haunches or guesswork.”

It also said that the request was “a fishing expedition for evidence that is obviously irrelevant and immaterial.” It said that “this is not sound basis upon which a valid request for subpoena testificandum ad duces tecum can be made.”

The opposition claimed that the request was being made for the basis of paragraph 2.4 of the Impeachment Complaint that alleged ill-gotten wealth, which the impeachment court had already “categorically disallowed the prosecution from introducing any evidence relating to said paragraph 2.4.”

The opposition also reiterated that article two of the impeachment complaint only accused Corona “of a single culpable act – his alleged failure to disclose to the public his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth [SALN], nothing more.”

Also requested by the prosecution were the original and certified true copies of “specimen signature cards of the bank account which won P1 million in the PSBank Monthly Millions Raffle Promo.”

The opposition said that “the testimony of the officers of PSBank on the purported bank account and raffle winnings of CJ Corona and/or his wife, …. are clearly irrelevant and immaterial to the issue of whether or not CJ Corona failed to disclose his SALN to the public.”

“It is clear that the Request [for the issuance of Subpoena] is nothing more but a brazen attempt to introduce irrelevant and immaterial evidence in the proceedings, in violation of CJ Corona’s right to due process,” the opposition said.

The prosecution sought the issuance of the subpoenas for the bank documents after officials of Megaworld Corp. and Ayala Land Inc. testified that the Coronas bought properties on “almost cash basis.”—With Marlon B. Ramos, Philippine Daily Inquirer