Manila The Philippine Senate has asked the Central Bank for a report on its investigation into the alleged role of a bank official in illegally passing on to congressmen the bank account details of impeached Supreme Court chief Justice Renato Corona.
"We have requested the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to issue a report after a more in-depth investigation of what happened. We expect that report to be handed to the Senate Committee on Banks on Monday," said Senator Sergio Osmeña, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banks which started investigating the possible violation of the country's Bank Secrecy Law after prosecutors presented Corona's bank details before the impeachment tribunal.
Admonished
The prosecution panel, which is composed of congressmen, presented Corona's bank accounts at PSB to prove that the chief justice misdeclared his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. The prosecutors were consequently admonished for presenting illegally obtained evidence as the country's Bank Secrecy Law prohibits unwarranted divulging of information of any bank account without a court order. "If Jerry Leal, a BSP examiner, is the source of the leak, we should know to whom he gave these documents and he may be violating the Bank Secrecy Law and the internal rules of the BSP," Osmeña said.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile wants the Senate to cite Leal, an anti-money laundering officer at the BSP, for contempt for allegedly lying during a Senate investigation on the issue. Members of the Senate committee on the bank have yet to vote on Enrile's motion. Leal irked Enrile when he told the Senate banks committee that he neither requested nor received a copy of Corona's signature card.
