CORONA FAMILY APPEALS SUBPOENA ON BANK RECORDS

The family of late Chief Justice Renato Corona has appealed the Sandiganbayan’s ruling allowing the Office of the Ombudsman to scrutinize their bank accounts in connection with their P130.59million forfeiture case.

In a 17-page motion for reconsideration, Corona’s widow, Cristina, and their three children, Ma. Carla Beatrize Castillo, Francis Corona and Charina Salgado, said the antigraft court’s Second Division erred in reinstating the Ombudsman’s subpoena on their bank records.

They said the court should not allow the Ombudsman to bolster a case based on alleged illegally obtained evidence.

The court on Oct. 23 granted the Ombudsman’s appeal to reverse the April 28, 2016, resolution, which initially approved the Coronas’ motion to quash the subpoenas on their peso and dollar bank accounts.

The Coronas maintained that the confidentiality of bank records was guaranteed by Republic Act (RA) No. 1405, or the Bank Secrecy Law, and RA 6426, or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act.

They said the Ombudsman only wanted to subpoena the bank records in an attempt to provide a legal cloak to the forfeiture case.

The appeal charged that the Ombudsman’s request followed a “prior illegal inquiry into respondents’ alleged bank records,” in violation of the Coronas’ constitutional right to unreasonable searches and seizures.

For one, the Coronas said the Ombudsman’s bank documents were obtained by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and signed by Associate Prosecution Attorney Jayvee Laurence Bandong of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

They pointed out, however, that the DOJ could not be a valid source or custodian of the supposed originals, casting doubt on whether the agency followed the law on bank inquiries.

The motion argued that under RA 6426, the only exception to the secrecy of foreign currency deposits waswhen the depositor had issued a written permission—which the spouses had not given to either the Ombudsmanor the Sandiganbayan.