Tuesday, February 21, 2012

News Update Corona transferred P37M to one account on day he was impeached

Chief Justice Renato Corona transferred over P37 million from three accounts he closed the day he was impeached to a single checking account, a bank official said Monday.
On the 20th day of Corona’s impeachment trial at the Senate, Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) president Pascual Garcia III said the chief justice made three deposits in the form of credit memoranda to Checking Account No. 089101005094 on Dec. 12.
The three deposits made to the checking account, which was opened on July 27, 2001 without any balance, had the following amounts: P7,397,566.36, P12,988,951.36,and P17,270,654.97,
Garcia added.
The bank official confirmed the separate amounts came from three accounts Corona closed on
Dec.
12

the day the the House of Representatives
impeached the
chief justice.
Last Thursday, Garcia and another PSBank official, Annabelle Tiongson, testified about the closure of these accounts before the Senate impeachment court.
Demetrio Custodio, one of the private prosecutors, noted the timing of closing the bank accounts seemed to show Corona’s “attempt to conceal certain amounts.”
Lawyers of the impeached chief magistrate, however, told reporters in a press briefing that the money deposited in these three accounts belongs to Basa-Guidote Enterprise Inc., owned by the family of Corona’s wife, Cristina.
The impeachment court is still tackling Article II of the impeachment complaint, which accuses Corona of failing to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth as required under the constitution. Joint accounts
During the trial, Garcia also volunteered information on Corona’s six bank accounts with his wife, Cristina.
Two of these accounts — one with an initial deposit of P66,674, the other with P44,449 — were fixed-term deposit accounts opened in August 2007. The first one was closed in October 2008, and the second account in September 2007.
The Corona couple also opened two bank accounts in September 2007, one with P94,589 and the other with P50,000. Both were closed in less than a year.
In October 2007, Corona and his wife opened a peso savings account with P50,000. The account was closed after a year, Garcia said.
The latest account with PSBank, opened on March 4 last year but closed 20 after days, had an initial deposit of P7,280,000.
The bank official said this bank account was shared with a third party, whose identity he did not reveal.