PHILIPPINE Savings Bank branch manager Annabel Tiongson maintained that the alleged bank documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona presented in the impeachment court are fake or spurious.

Tiongson, who testified again in the impeachment court yesterday, said that after comparing the documents attached to the subpoena sent to her and the original documents in their possession, she found that the former are different and have a lot of alterations.

However, Tiongson failed to identify the differences between the two documents when asked by Senator-judge Franklin Drilon to tell to the court what made them different.

“There are entries in the original which are not found in the Xerox copies. There were alterations. But I did not list down the differences,” Tiongson said.

In her earlier statement last Monday, Tiongson admitted that the five peso accounts deposited in the PSBank Katipunan branch all belong to Corona.

These are account numbers 089-12101758, peso time deposit opened on January 26, 2009 with P2 million opening balance; 089-121019593, peso time deposit opened on December 22, 2009 with P8 million opening balance; 089-121020122, opened on March 04, 2010 with P3 million opening balance; 089-121021681, opened on September 1, 2010 with P7 million opening balance and 089-12111957, opened on May 16, 2007 with P2 million opening balance.

Meanwhile, Tiongson’s testimony corroborated that of PSBank president Pascual Garcia who had told the court that the copies of documents attached in the subpoena have many differences compared to the original documents kept in the bank’s main office making the copies, marked as evidence of the impeachment case, questionable.

Pascual said that the copies presented in court have signatures not found in the original copies.


Tupas and Tiongson

Meanwhile, lead prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. denied insinuations that he or his wife are depositors of PS Bank Katipunan branch that may have led to the discovery of Corona’s huge deposits.

According to Tupas,what is happening right now is an attempt to declare a mistrial which is part of the desperate move of the defense panel.

“Isa lang ang pinapakita n’yan, na very, very desperate na ang respondent,” Tupas said in an interview.

During the trial, Senator-judge Jinggoy Estrada tried to link Tiongson’s and Tupas’ families politically.

Tiongson’s cousin, Roberto Armada, and Tupas’ brother Raul ran as vice governor and governor, respectively, in Iloilo during the 2010 elections.

Likewise, Armada was vice governor when Tupas’ father, Niel Sr., served as Iloilo governor.

Tiongson denied knowing Tupas even if the two came from the same province.

“We were never introduced and I have never seen them,” Tiongson said.


Prosecution compliance

The House prosecution panel yesterday submitted its response to the order of Enrile to answer the witness’ statement that the bank documents the panel had presented are “fake.”

Tupas told the court that only the disclosure of the dollar accounts documents will verify its authenticity.

“Indeed, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to verify the authenticity of Annexes A to A-4 unless PSBank will be ordered to produce for inspection all the opening documents (including Customer Identification and Specimen Signature Cards) for all of the respondent’s accounts (peso and dollar) with PSBank,” Tupas said.

“Only then will the Honorable Impeachment Court be able to determine whether Annexes A to A-4 correspond to the documents on record with PSBank. Only then will the Honorable Impeachment Court be able to make a comparison by which to determine if Annexes A to A-4 are photocopies or reproductions of originals existing in the records of PS Bank,” he added.

He stressed that the court cannot just rely on statements by bank officers about the authenticity of the documents.

“PSBank officers have a natural motive to deny the authenticity of Annexes A to A-4, because they would want to avoid potential liability for the possible leakage of their bank records,” the compliance said.