Malacañang said on Tuesday the strong performance of Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) in its recent bond sale, despite its involvement in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, should dispel fears about the possible adverse impact of the proceedings on the country’s banking system.
Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda made the statement in a news briefing when asked about PSBank’s P3-billion bond sale amid the participation of some of its officers in the impeachment trial, and whether the sale should allay fears of eroded public confidence in the banking system.
“We have stated already….that the banking system is sound. It will not be affected by all these accusations or all these fear-mongering by the defense that it [CJ trial] will affect the banking system; that it will result in a bank run. That’s clearly been debunked by this strong showing of performance of the PSBank bonds,” Lacierda said.
He said the defense lawyers have been “very irresponsible” in insisting that opening Corona’s bank records to the public could have devastating consequences on the banking system. “You hurt the entire system because you just want to save a single mortal,” Lacierda said.
On the reported “fake” PSBank documents of the prosecution, Lacierda said that the bank official who deemed the document as such may be just protecting her bank in doing so.
“I suppose they’re protecting their bank because there’s a violation of the Bank Secrecy Law so I would assume the bank will do everything to protect itself from liability from the Bank Secrecy Law,” he said.
Last week, PSBank President and Chief Executive Officer Pascual Garcia III disclosed the account numbers and corresponding figures of Corona’s peso account, which had been subpoenaed by the Senate.
PSBank Katipunan Branch Manager Annabelle Tiongson had said the bank document presented by the prosecution on Corona’s dollar account did not come from her bank. She said aside from PSBank, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also has access to Corona’s accounts.
“She’s trying to pass the blame on to BSP so I don’t know if that’s a strategy. You know, it was very contingently slipped by the branch manager—giving the idea, the suggestion that it came from the BSP. That is something that she should answer to it that is found to be untrue,” Lacierda said.
He said it “was a very slight but a very sly inference, accusation on the BSP.”
When asked, Lacierda disputed the claim of Corona that President Aquino’s alleged call for senators to defy the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) on the opening of the Chief Justice’s dollar accounts is an impeachable offense, noting that this “has no factual basis and there is no legal basis for him to say so.”
“The statement of Chief Justice Corona was premised…on the claim of the defense that Executive Secretary [Paquito, Jr.] Ochoa spoke to the senators to offer a hundred million [pesos] and told them to defy the TRO. That was a false premise on the part of the Chief Justice. The President never stated that,” Lacierda said. He said what Mr. Aquino had said was that “the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over the Senate.”
Asked whether Corona can be held liable for his allegation against Mr. Aquino, Lacierda said, “He is already in the midst of an impeachment complaint. One fight at a time.”
