The House prosecution panel has invoked the impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona as precedent for subpoenaing the financial and tax records of Vice President Sara Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio.
During oral arguments, impeachment prosecutor and Akbayan Party-list Rep. Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno said the Senate impeachment court had previously allowed the production and examination of bank records covering periods before Corona became chief justice.
“Sa huli, binusisi ng hukumang ito ang bank records ni Chief Justice Corona mula sa kanyang unang balance bago pa man siya naging Punong Mahistrado,” Diokno said.
The prosecution raised the argument in support of its request for subpoenas covering the bank records, Bureau of Internal Revenue documents, and Anti-Money Laundering Council reports of Duterte and Carpio.
Prosecutors said the records are material to the second article of impeachment, which accuses Duterte of accumulating unexplained wealth disproportionate to her lawful income, concealing assets in her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, and engaging in business in violation of the Constitution.
Diokno recalled that then Philippine Savings Bank President Pascual Garcia III initially refused to answer a question from then Senator-Judge Franklin Drilon about the opening balance of two peso-denominated accounts owned by Corona.
He said that Senator-Judge Alan Peter Cayetano, who is also sitting as a senator-judge in Duterte’s impeachment trial, argued that the account-opening documents should have been presented before the impeachment court.
According to Diokno, then Senate President and presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile agreed with Cayetano and ordered the issuance of a subpoena directing the manager of the PSBank Katipunan branch to produce all of Corona’s bank records.
The impeachment court later denied the defense’s motion to quash the subpoena covering Corona’s peso accounts, Diokno said.
He added that the court also rejected a motion to suppress the bank records after Enrile explained that the subpoena was intended to determine whether Corona had failed to declare the deposits in his SALN.
Diokno also cited the position taken during the Corona trial by then senator-judge Francis Escudero, now the presiding officer of Duterte’s impeachment trial.
Escudero had questioned whether the Senate should consider only acts committed while Corona was serving as chief justice after noting that some documentary evidence predated his appointment.
Diokno said the matter was discussed in a caucus, after which the impeachment court admitted the evidence.
He argued that the Corona proceedings established that the Senate may examine financial records from periods before an official assumed an impeachable position when the documents are relevant to determining the official’s fitness for public office.
“The panel of prosecutors respectfully submits that the subpoenas for the production of the bank records, [AMLC] documents, and BIR documents of the Vice President and her husband are proper and should be issued by this Honorable Court,” Diokno said.