THE House opposition bloc yesterday vowed to investigate their two colleagues who are members of the prosecution panel in the impeachment court for possible appropriate disciplinary action on alleged violation of the Bank Secrecy Law.

During House minority’s regular press conference Wednesday, Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano Jr. said they want Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, a public prosecutor, and Quezon City Rep. Bolet Banal, a member of the prosecution’s secretariat, to stand trial before the committee for possible abuse of law or the supposed leakage in the documents pertaining to the accounts of impeached Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“Maybe we will just concentrate on Banal and Umali who apparently violated the Bank Secrecy Law by providing these fake documents in the impeachment,” Albano told reporters.

“But certainly we will pursue our investigation on Banal and Umali. We

will file the proper resolution (next) Monday,” Albano added.

For his part, House Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the investigation by the committee is proper since the actions by Umali and Banal have been affecting the image of the House of Representatives as a whole.

“That is why we will be asking the House ethics committee to look into their culpability for dragging the good name of the entire House of Representatives into this disorderly behavior,” Suarez pointed out.

Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay warned that the absence of inquiry will erode the credibility of the banking industry in the country and could further result to panic among big depositors. Magsaysay said the source should be held liable for criminal charges as this issue could cause irreparable damage to the industry.

“Since there is the implication that parties other than PS Bank handled the documents during the audit process, then persons who were able to view these confidential materials should all be investigated, including auditors from the Anti Money Laundering Council and the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas to narrow down any possible source of the leakage,” said Magsaysay. She said that the law is very clear with regard to bank confidentiality and the fact that the prosecution was able to get their hands on faithful reproductions of the original documents could cause alarm among banking industry stakeholders and depositors.

“Possessing documents of a confidential nature is in itself a violation of the law. Saying that it came from an anonymous source does not help and only serves to muddle the waters even more.

Authorities should get to the bottom of the matter because if not, the same could happen to everyone and the credibility of the banking industry will be put at risk,” she said.

The Zambales lawmaker said that should doubts continue to haunt the security and confidentiality of bank deposits, this might cause a bank run, or a mass withdrawal of deposits and result in bankruptcy and irreparable losses.

“If this happens, does the government have a solution at hand? Are they ready to bail out the banking sector? Because in presenting the confidential documents as evidence, they have opened a Pandora’s Box that could damage an entire industry and not just the reputation of the Chief Justice,” the lawmaker said.