SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday assumed “full responsibility” for ordering the Philippine Savings Bank to produce the original of a bank document related to  a dollar account of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona based on the request of the House prosecution panel.

Enrile issued a subpoena to the concerned officials of PS Bank to bring  the specified   bank papers after  Annabel Tiongson, PSBank Katipunan branch manager, called fake supposed photocopies of the document the prosecution attached to the impeachment complaint.

Enrile’s move appeared to run counter to the impeachment court’s decision to respect the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court halting the disclosure of Corona’s dollar accounts.

“The Senate as an impeachment court, must at all times observe the rule of law. It cannot transgress any of the applicable provisions of the bill of rights, it must be guided by the presumption of innocence before the pronouncement of guilt,” said Enrile, acting as presiding officer of the Senate impeachment court.

“It was my decision as a presiding officer and I am personally bound to assume the consequences of my actions as presiding officer.  As far as the subpoena duces tecum involved which was issued by this presiding officer, upon the behest of the prosecution, this presiding officer assumes full responsibility for issuing that subpoena and is ready to defend his position in any court of law, if there is a need for that. I will not pass the buck to the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court,” Enrile said.   

“Having said that, I do not wish to delve on the issue of whether the exercise of the power to issue compulsory processes of this court in this particular instance involving Republic Act 1405 (Bank Secrecy Act and RA 6426 (Foreign Currency Deposit Act,” he added.    

He said that the impeachment court must “at all times” observe the principle of procedural and substantial due process. “It cannot use its power to issue compulsory processes to compel any witness to appear and testify, and in testifying is forced to commit a crime,” Enrile said. 

“It cannot compel a witness to testify against himself.  It cannot arbitrarily declare a person guilty of contempt and deprive that person of his or her liberty. It cannot violate the laws passed by Congress, of which it is an integral part,” he said. 

Enrile noted that the impeachment court exercises the discretion to issue a subpoena.

“Whether or not in the end, this (impeachment) court abused its discretion or committed a grave abuse of discretion, amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction, will be decided or has to be decided by the Supreme Court being the highest court of the land, and the final arbiter and interpreter of Constitution of this country,” he said. 

“For no one else was given by the sovereign people in their Constitution, the power to make a final determination, interpretation of what the Constitution ought to be, or what a law ought to be, except the Supreme Court, not the executive, not Congress but only the Supreme Court,” Enrile said.

“So, it my bounden duty as presiding officer of this impeachment court to respect the authority or power of the Supreme Court to review acts of this impeachment court in interlocutory matters, meaning matters on the manner by which this Court would conduct the trial of this particular impeachment case,” he said. 

However, Enrile maintained that the Supreme Court, in spite of the fact that it has the power of judicial review, cannot assume jurisdiction over the sole power of this Senate sitting as an impeachment court to try and decide the Corona impeachment case.