THE House prosecution panel yesterday defended Quezon City Rep. Jorge Banal against critics saying that the issue of his visit to the PS Bank Katipunan branch will be used by the defense for the benefit of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Prosecution spokesperson Rep. Miro Quimbo said that the defense panel will use the Banal issue to divert the attention of the public from the bank accounts of Corona, which were not seen in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN).

“This issue about Congressman Banal is just a sideshow. I’m saddened by the fact that this is being used to distract us from Corona’s multi-million-peso bank accounts,” Quimbo.

According to Quimbo the team is not disappointed with Banal, even with his keeping to himself a copy of the alleged  dollar account records of Corona.

Banal surrendered himself to the Senate impeachment court and explained to the senator-judges how he was able to acquire the documents.

He will return next week to the Senate to answer some questions from the senator-judges.

Testifying before the Senate impeachment court, PS Bank Katipunan branch manager Annabelle Tiongson said Banal went to their branch on January 31 to “ask for help about a photocopy of documents pertaining to Corona’s accounts with the bank.”

Another spokesperson, Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada, said that there is nothing wrong with the move of Banal saying that he just wanted to help the group in acquiring evidence against Corona.

“Parang pulis lang siya na magalang na nagtatanong sa isang tindera kung meron ba siyang nakitang holdaper na dumaan sa kanyang harapan. Ang isyu dito ay ‘yung holdaper, hindi ‘yung mababait na tao na gustong mahuli ‘yung holdaper,” Tañada said in defending Banal.

Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara said they expect the defense lawyers “to go to town with this minor issue to cover up for the damaging information which surfaced in Thursday’s hearing.”

“They (defense counsels) will fan this non-issue as a smokescreen that will hide from the public the revelation made by a bank manager in open court and under oath that the chief justice maintained two more accounts with huge peso deposits in Ms. Tiongson’s branch,” Angara said.

Based on the testimony of Tiongson and bank president Pascual Garcia III, Corona had at least three bank accounts amounting to P36.7 million as of December 2010 but these were closed on December 12, 2011 or the day the 188 lawmakers filed the impeachment complaint.