Chief Justice Renato Corona owns another peso account containing millions, a bank official testified on Thursday's hearing.
As of 2010, Corona’s Bank of the Philippine Islands account has P12 million, said Leonora Dizon, branch manager of BPI Ayala Avenue Branch.
Senate earlier ordered Dizon to testify and bring Corona's bank records from 2005 to 2010 to be presented as evidence for the impeachment's Article II, which deals with the truthfulness of statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.
The bank manager said Corona’s BPI account is still active.
Balances at yearend were: P149,000 in 2005; P153,000 in 2006; P5 million in 2007; P1.5 million in 2008; P678,000 in 2009; and then P12 million in 2010.
This is apart from Corona's two other accounts in Philippine Savings Bank with a combined ending balance of almost P20 million, as revealed in the impeachment court on Wednesday.
In his 2010 SALN, Corona’s declared cash asset was only P3.5 million.
Lead defense counsel Serafin Cuevas asked the Senate to subpoena Corona’s bank records from BPI. He wanted to show that Corona’s P12 million was not due to a single deposit but accumulated over several transactions.
But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, presiding officer of the impeachment court, told both parties to simply go to the bank to examine Corona’s records in order to speed things up.
