WITNESS FACES CONTEMPT / CJ NOT
MANDATED TO DECLARE HIS $ ACCOUNTS
MANILA, MAY 18, 2012 (PHILSTAR) By Helen Flores -
(PHOTO - Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile asks a defense witness about his
intentions in giving to him documents received allegedly from an anonymous
source.)
The Senate impeachment court ordered yesterday a defense witness to explain
why he should not be cited for contempt for trying to influence senator-judges.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile questioned the motive of Harvey Keh, lead
covenor of Kaya Natin! Movement, for turning over confidential records of Chief
Justice Renato Corona's alleged $10-million bank accounts to his office and not
to the Office of the Ombudsman, where the civil society leader earlier filed a
complaint.
Keh, who was presented by the defense as a hostile witness on Day 39 of the
trial, told the impeachment court that he received the supposed bank documents
of Corona from an "anonymous" source in his office in Quezon City last May 3.
Enrile said he felt insulted after Keh submitted the documents to his office
while being covered by a news crew of ABS-CBN.
"Because of this I'm ordering you to show cause why you should not be cited
for contempt by this impeachment court. You're trying to influence this court by
bringing these documents," Enrile told Keh.
The Senate President said he did not open and read the documents because he
does not know what they were.
"I felt insulted and offended as a presiding officer of this court and I am
ordering you to show cause why you not be cited for contempt," he said.
"What was your purpose in giving this to me in a sealed envelope with a
television crew accompanying you? What for?" Enrile asked Keh.
Keh said he delivered the documents to Enrile's office because he felt the
Senate was the proper government agency to examine these documents.
"I just felt that your office is in the best position to study this document
and see if they can be used or not," he said in response to Enrile.
"Evidently they (media) knew that you were coming to my office, you wanted to
be sure it will be publicized, it will be delivered to the impeach court,"
Enrile said.
'Arrest Mr. Anonymous'
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago berated Keh yesterday for submitting documents,
which allegedly came from an anonymous source.
She said Keh could not even be a witness and yet he was foisting himself as a
complainant before the public.
"You're acting on anonymous source, every time there is something that
requires identification of the source the prosecution says there is no source,
it came anonymously. Who is Mr. Anonymous? I just want to ask the PNP
(Philippine National Police) and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to issue
an arrest order against him," the Iloilo senator said.
Santiago and Enrile asked Keh why he did not give the documents to the
prosecution team and volunteer as witness.
Keh answered that the impeachment case against Corona was already filed when
he received the documents.
Santiago also threatened Keh with criminal charges for violating the Bank
Secrecy Law and the Foreign Currency Deposit Act.
Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., on the other hand, said that there are several
ways now in which seemingly anonymous documents end up in the hands of the
prosecution.
Marcos said that during the presentation of evidence of the prosecution, they
mentioned about the "small lady" who allegedly gave documents to Oriental
Mindoro 2nd district Rep. Reynaldo Umali and the anonymous source who gave the
same documents to Quezon City 3rd district Rep. Jorge "Bolet" Banal.
Keh said the documents were left in the mail slot in the Kaya Natin! Office
in Barangay Loyola Heights in Quezon City last May 3. He said the documents,
which were placed in a brown envelope, were addressed to him.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada called Keh a liar when he said that he was not seeking
publicity when he got the papers on Corona's alleged bank accounts.
Keh admitted that he texted a tabloid reporter and a broadsheet reporter
about the documents.
Defense lawyer Dennis Manalo, meanwhile, tried to prove Keh's "involvement in
a well-planned and orchestrated effort to destroy the reputation of Corona."
FROM THE INQUIRER
'Corona can't testify on dollar accounts' By
Christian V. Esguerra Philippine Daily Inquirer 12:46 am | Friday, May 18th,
2012
Should Chief Justice Renato Corona testify on his purported $12
million bank deposits based on an unsigned, computer-generated report by the
Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC)?
Not so fast, said a retired official of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR),
who warned of "many legal obstacles" even if the Chief Justice gives in to the
demand—both by senators and prosecutors—that he explain his supposed dollar
accounts.
Estrella Martinez, a CPA-lawyer who served in the BIR for 32 years, on
Thursday said Corona was under no obligation to reveal such accounts because of
the Foreign Currency Deposit Act (Republic Act No. 6426).
She also cited the Supreme Court's temporary restraining order (TRO)
preventing the impeachment court from looking into the claimed dollar deposits
while it deliberates on a petition from PSBank pleading confidentiality of
dollar accounts under RA 6426.
"I don't believe the Chief Justice will violate the secrecy law because he's
not bound, he's not mandated to declare dollar deposits," Martinez told the
Inquirer in an interview in Quezon City.
'Heinous crime'
"If Corona violates the TRO, he's committing a heinous crime. He might be
cited in contempt by those who signed the TRO. There are many legal obstacles,"
she added.
Corona's defense team Thursday expressed confidence going into his
all-important testimony on Tuesday where he would be interrogated on a variety
of allegations, particularly that he owns dollar accounts and failed to declare
them in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) for which he
is principally being impeached.
Chief Justice ready
Tranquil Salvador III, one of Corona's lawyers, said the allegation that the
Chief Justice owned 82 bank accounts was not unlike the claim that he had 45
properties, a much-publicized accusation the prosecution eventually retracted.
"We've seen the evidence and the Chief Justice is ready," he told the
Inquirer, before Corona was to meet with his defense counsels late in the
afternoon to plot their strategy for next week.
The Office of the Ombudsman has sent the result of an investigation into
Corona's alleged ill-gotten wealth to the House of Representatives for
consideration in initiating another impeachment case against him in December.
Martinez, an expert on SALNs having spent years at the BIR and with a master
of law degree in taxation from the University of the Philippines, said foreign
currency deposits have "no place in the SALN" because of the strict rules of RA
6426.
No dollars in SALN
That partly explains why, she said in a paper given to the Inquirer, "in all
my 32 years as a tax collector, I have never encountered a government official
declare his dollar deposits in his SALN."
"A dollar deposit cannot be declared as assets in the SALN because this will
not affect his net worth," she wrote. "It is of judicial notice that increase in
net worth is taxable under Section 24 of the Tax Code, because net worth
comprises such acquisition in 'peso' only."
Martinez added: "Some passive income, like interest on dollar deposit, has
been subjected to a final withholding tax, which the dollar depositor is not
mandated to declare in his income tax return or SALN. This dollar transaction
will just appear in an alpha list submitted to the BIR."
Coerced consent
Martinez said Corona's decision to take the witness stand and disclose his
supposed dollar deposits could not be considered an "expressed consent" as
required in RA 6426. Given the circumstances—that he's on trial and under
pressure to disprove his accusers—such a testimony could be considered a
"coerced consent."
"That evidence is not admissible because his consent is not free-willing, (it
was given) under coercion. Of all people with dollar deposits, why is he being
singled out?" she said.
"If CJ Corona will be coerced to declare his dollar deposits, if any, in his
SALN, then his consent is a vitiated one which will not create rights of
government to investigate his dollar accounts," she wrote in the paper.
Given the circumstances, Estrella said it would be better for Corona to
invoke his right against self-incrimination when asked during trial about his
alleged dollar accounts.
"It doesn't mean that just because Corona agreed (to take the stand), you can
now shoot him in any part of his body," she said, noting that the Chief Justice
should not worry about a possible backlash in terms of public opinion.
"Public opinion is immaterial. Anybody can have an opinion, but not everybody
can have the right opinion," she said. "I would like to uphold the rule of law,
not the rule of the mob."
The Inquirer showed Martinez a copy of the 17-page AMLC report on the alleged
Corona deposits, which Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales presented to the Senate
last Monday.
No probative value
Martinez did not bother to pore over the document and dismissed it as "just a
sheet of paper with no probative value." She noted the report presented by
Morales, a retired Supreme Court associate justice, was not even signed or
validated.
"You can pick that up in the garbage can," she said, pointing out that even
if bank officials were subpoenaed by the Senate, "no one in his right mind would
validate" the document. "It's a waste of time because you cannot convict a
person just because of that."
Martinez also did not agree with Morales' contention that Corona had
effectively waived his right under RA 6426 when he signed his SALNs. The waiver
authorizes the Ombudsman to "obtain and secure from all appropriate government
agencies, including the BIR, such documents that may show assets, liabilities,
net worth, business interests and financial connections."
Morales had described the waiver as a "clincher" that enabled her to obtain
the report from the AMLC. But Martinez described the contention as "very, very
elementary … very amateurish."
All about hypocrisy
"They have seen SALNs only now. I have been there in the field … with due
respect to her, I can debate with her on that," the CPA-lawyer said.
Martinez said the "focus of the SALN is to ferret out tax evasion," meaning
the BIR should use the document as a guide in going after tax evaders.
"They are so naive that your honesty in the government ends with your
disclosure in the SALN. The next question to complete your honesty—did you pay
the tax on your increase in your net worth?" she said.
"Assuming, God forbid, that Corona is convicted because of SALN, everybody
will be impeached," she said. "All the hypocrisy, I cannot stand." With a report from Jerome Aning
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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