MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang declared on Thursday that there will be no constitutional crisis in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, insisting the Supreme Court (SC) cannot meddle with or stop the proceedings under the full jurisdiction of the Senate.

Amid reports the camp of Corona has asked the High Tribunal to stop the release of his bank records in the trial, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Constitution clearly states that the impeachment process is the sole and exclusive authority of the Senate.

Lacierda said the Senate, sitting as impeachment court, is a “unique constitutional entity” mandated to check the accountability of impeachable officials, including the President, Vice President and members of the SC.

“There is no constitutional crisis,” said Lacierda. “The Senate sitting impeachment court and senators sitting as judges are very clear with their mandate. They are there to hold impeachable officials accountable.”

Speaking at a news conference, he added: “The Constitution is very clear here. The Senate has the sole and exclusive jurisdiction to try impeachment cases. Nowhere is it found in the Constitution that the Supreme Court has power to interfere in an impeachment case.”

Lacierda affirmed that the Senate impeachment court is “supreme” due to its limited constitutional mandate to try officials of government.

“The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over the case. You cannot have someone being checked to be checking the impeachment court. That’s not the idea of the commissioners when they framed the Constitution,” he said.

On Corona’s move to seek relief from the high court, Lacierda said the Chief Justice is looking for a “friendly venue” to voice out their frustrations. He said Corona could be hiding the truth amid his refusal to open his bank accounts in impeachment trial.

Mum On Dollar Account

At the continuation of the impeachment trial on Thursday, the president of the PSBank refused to reveal details pertaining to the dollar accounts of the Chief Justice, saying it would violate the law of foreign currency deposits.

PSBank President Pascual Garcia III took the witness stand for the second time on Thursday despite his non-disclosure of Corona’s dollar account.

Garcia was pressed intensively about the dollar account by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senators Franklin Drilon, Jinggoy Estrada, and Allan Peter Cayetano but he stood pat on this decision not to disclose any details about the dollar account.

When they failed to obtain information about Corona's dollar account, the senator-judges dwelt again on the peso accounts, which were earlier discovered to have multi-million deposits.

Asked by Drilon whether he knew how much was the initial deposit of Corona, Garcia said he was not privy about it and that only the branch manager of PSBank-Katipunan is knowledgeable about it.

With this, the impeachment court issued a subpoena to Katipunan branch manager Anabelle Tiongson.

Testifying on Thursday, Garcia told the court he “volunteered” to appear in court on behalf of Tiongson because he “saw the fear and concern” in her.

“She was very stressed about the circumstances because of the potential liabilities of imprisonment if she would disclose... because the law is, as we understand, is very clear, so I recognized this,” Garcia said.

Estrada then asked Garcia if Tiongson was a “small lady,” a reference to the unidentified small lady who leaked copies of Corona's supposed bank records to the Rep. Rey Umali of the prosecution camp. Garcia answered in the negative.

Questionable Accounts

Meanwhile, the prosecution camp said the discovery of nearly P20 million in two peso accounts of the Chief Justice with the PSBank in 2010 alone is just the tip of the iceberg and only underscores the need to open his dollar deposits by the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court.

Spokespersons of the House of Representatives’ prosecution panel made this assessment as they tried to figure out how Corona, who was only worth P22.9 million in 2010, was able to acquire three condominium units with a combined cost of P27.2 million and still maintained a P20-million bank deposit the same year he accepted his appointment from former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“We have only hit the tip of the iceberg. What we feel is that the balances revealed in Wednesday’s trial were random samples of the chief magistrate’s hidden stash,” Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo said.

Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada said the “collective contents of the two bank accounts were never reported” in Corona’s sworn Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for 2010.

“It reinforces our appeal that the foreign deposits of the impeached chief justice be disclosed in the interest of truth and transparency,” Tañada said.

In Wednesday’s trial, Garcia revealed that Corona opened an account in 2009 that had an ending balance of P8.5 million as of Dec. 31 that same year. This account ballooned to more than P12.5 million by the end of 2010.

Another account, opened only in 2010, had a balance of P7.148 million also by the end of that year.

However, Corona only declared “cash and investments” worth P3.5 million in his SALN for 2010.

“We are looking at a discrepancy of P16 million. In short, there is a discrepancy of at least 600 or 700 percent in terms of under declaring actual cash,” Quimbo pointed out.

Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara noted that Corona’s peso deposits had suddenly swollen by P11 million in 2010, the same year he assumed the top post of the Supreme Court.

Angara said it looks like Corona was awash with cash that year because he still managed to keep a lot of money in the bank despite having bought the controversial penthouse unit at the Bellagio Tower in The Fort, Taguig City.

“We must take note that the 2010 ending balance on his two accounts alone of almost P20 million was posted after he had purchased the Bellagio property,” Angara said.

He pointed out that nearly P20 million found in his two peso accounts with PSBank was already the “net balance” of what he paid for the Bellagio property, which he declared to be worth P6.8 million in his 2010 SALN but was actually bought for P14.5 million based on the absolute deed of sale earlier presented by the registrar of deeds before the impeachment tribunal.

Aside from the Bellagio property, Corona and his wife bought a unit at the Bonifacio Ridge, also in Taguig City, for P9.1 million in 2004; and a unit at The Columns in Makati City for P3.6 million in 2003.

However, the prosecution noted that Corona undervalued the three properties by P16.9 million in his SALN and only declared these in his 2010 filing.

In his 2010 SALN, Corona declared the Bonifacio Ridge property only cost P2.3 million and The Columns P1.2 million. (With a report from Rolly T. Carandang)