SIGN of guilt.

This is how the House prosecution panel saw Chief Justice Renato Corona’s hasty closing of his huge peso accounts in Philippine Savings Bank on December 12, 2011 or the day when the lawmakers filed the impeachment complaint against him.

Prosecution spokesperson Rep. Miro Quimbo said that if Corona is not hiding something then he would not have touched any of his bank accounts.

“We are appalled by this latest development. The fact that he ordered these accounts terminated the same day the House impeached him tends to show that there was an attempt on his part to conceal these,” Quimbo said.

“The gap between his income and wealth is getting wider. We believe that it is a chasm that can no longer be bridged by alibis and excuses. But as we’ve said again and again, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” he added.

Returning to the witness stand, PS Bank Katipunan branch manager Annabelle Tiongson enumerated to the Senate impeachment court the five time deposit accounts of Corona, two of which with ending balances of P12.5 million and P7.1 million as of December 2010, were closed on December 12, 2011.

Also, PS Bank President Pascual Garcia III disclosed that Corona has another time deposit opened on June 29, 2011 with opening balance of P17 million and was also closed on December 12, 2011.

Previously, it was discovered that Corona has another bank account with the Bank of the Philippine Islands amounting to P12.02 million.

Such huge amount of deposits were not seen in the 2010 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of Corona. He only declared P3.5 million as cash in 2010.

“This is a clear sign that Mr. Corona is guilty of concealing huge bank deposits,” Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada, another prosecution spokesperson, said.

“The P17 million in just one deposit represents about 30 years of his pay as Supreme Court justice based on the documents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The only way he can justify this huge stash, aside from being perhaps a repeat winner in PSBank raffles, is that he was a secret lotto winner,” Tañada said.

Meanwhile, spokesperson Rep. Sonny Angara said that it is safe to assume that Corona converted his riches to dollar deposits to keep these beyond the reach of the law and scrutiny.

“The chief justice may not know ethics but he knows his law. As a multiple account holder well-versed in banking practices, he knows that a legal firewall fences foreign currency deposits. That is why, as his impeachment loomed, he closed his peso deposits as these were no longer safe havens of his unexplained wealth,” Angara said.