Santiago advises prosecution to be careful in presenting evidence
By Jelly F. Musico
MANILA, Feb. 22 (PNA) – Senator-Judge Miriam Defensor- Santiago advised the members of the House prosecution panel on Tuesday to be careful in the presentation of evidence to avoid repetition of the same blunder that marred Annex A with regards to leaked bank documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
”I would like to counsel the prosecution to be extremely careful. You might be treading on thin ice,” Santiago said as she opened the 21st day of impeachment trial with her manifestation on the leaked documents.
Santiago expressed concerns that the leaked documents which the prosecution attached to its request for supplemental subpoena on Corona’s bank records might overshadow the need to finish speedily the impeachment proceedings.
”The importance of this topic in this impeachment proceedings might overshadow the need to hurry and finish the impeachment trial because if there is proof or record that the signature cards were falsified, then perhaps the court might lean towards considering them false,” Santiago said.
She warned that if one panel is lying on one particular, “then we will have to believe that it is lying on all particulars.”
”Under the penal code, falsification is committed by making any alteration on a document. Forgery is different from falsification. Falsification is committed by making any alteration on document. We don’t need handwriting experts to scrutinize leaked Corona bank documents,” Santiago said.
Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank)-Katipunan branch manager Anabelle Tiongson testified earlier before the court that the leaked documents were fake due to the differences of entries found in the original documents.
However, Santiago believed that the leaked documents were not fake “because there are simply inconsistencies and discrepancies.”
As to the source of the leaked documents, Senate President-Presiding Officer Juan Ponce Enrile is convinced that it did not come from the PSBank.
“Me, I am convinced that the leak did not come from the bank. They submitted it…by virtue of respecting the authority of the Central Bank and AMLC. Whether the AMLC or the BSP was the source of the leak is a conclusion that can be drawn from the questions that I asked,” Enrile said in an interview with Senate reporters on Tuesday.
Enrile made the statement after PSBank president Pascual Garcia III testified on Monday that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) had access to the same bank documents of Corona after they audited the documents between September and November of 2010. (PNA)
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