DESPITE her identity is still a mystery, Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said that the “small lady” deserves the nation’s gratitude.

This is because she provided a document that exposed Chief Justice Renato Corona’s hidden wealth in the bank.

“If not for her then we would really have a hard time uncovering the numerous peso and dollar accounts of Corona which shows that his real assets are way beyond what he declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN). I hope that there will be more whistleblowers like her that will come out to expose corruption and evil doing in all branches of government,” Casiño said.

It can be recalled that prosecutor Rep. Reynaldo Umali told the Senate impeachment court that a “small lady” handed down to him an envelope containing copies of bank records of Corona.

Based on the documents, Corona is maintaining at least 10 peso and dollar accounts in PS Bank. The peso accounts has a total deposits of P31.7 million, however, the dollar accounts which due to the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court will not be opened, allegedly contain at least P30 million.

Umali said he doesn’t know the lady and did not recognize her.

For Casiño, it is more important to expose such wrongdoing of a high official.

“I salute her. It is for people like her that we’re pushing hard for a whistleblowers’ protection law,” he said.

“The fact is, the information on Corona’s undeclared bank accounts was genuine and the PS Bank president was forced to admit 10 accounts in his name in PS Bank alone. The subpoena issued by the Senate was legal, whether or not its source is identified. This penchant to penalize the whistleblower instead of the corrupt public official being exposed, which was a common tactic by Pres. Arroyo before, is now again being employed. This discourages potential whistleblowers and encourages corruption,” Casiño said.