THE Senate impeachment court on Monday allowed the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to testify on foreign currency records involving Vice President Sara Z. Duterte and her husband, lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio, ruling that bank secrecy protections do not place information lawfully reported to the agency beyond the court’s reach.
Presiding Officer Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero issued an extended ruling rejecting an objection raised by Sen. Imee Marcos as AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Ronel Buenaventura was about to discuss information involving a foreign currency account.
“The confidentiality of foreign currency deposits cannot operate to place information lawfully reported to the AMLC beyond the reach of the impeachment court,” Escudero ruled.
Following the ruling, Buenaventura proceeded with his testimony on AMLC records containing information on a dollar account involving Carpio.
He testified that the records identified a peso account opened at PSBank Davao-Madrazo in September 2012 and a dollar account opened at PSBank Wilson in July 2017. Carpio, who declared his source of income as a lawyer, was identified in the records as the account holder.
Buenaventura said both accounts remained active, with average daily balances over the previous six months of P519,787.44 and $6,411.05, respectively.
Escudero stressed that the court was not ordering banks or other covered institutions to directly disclose foreign currency deposits maintained by Duterte.
Rather, Buenaventura was being asked to testify on financial information already lawfully in AMLC’s possession through covered and suspicious transaction reports submitted by financial institutions.
Escudero said the Foreign Currency Deposit Act must be read together with the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), which requires covered institutions to report covered and suspicious transactions to AMLC regardless of currency denomination.
“Clearly, the confidentiality afforded to foreign currency deposits does not exempt the latter from the reporting and inquiry provisions under AMLA,” he said.
The court also rejected the argument that precedent from the impeachment trial of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona barred the presentation of foreign currency information.
Escudero cited the Corona trial, where then Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales was allowed to testify on information contained in an AMLC report concerning foreign currency accounts attributed to Corona.
He noted that Morales obtained the information from AMLC rather than directly from the banks.
Escudero also cited Supreme Court rulings which, he said, showed that the confidentiality accorded to foreign currency deposits was not an absolute rule without exceptions.
“Thus, the suspicious transaction reports or covered transaction reports submitted to the AMLC do not acquire the status of absolute confidentiality merely because they contain information concerning foreign currency deposit accounts,” he said.
The ruling allows Buenaventura to continue testifying on foreign currency information contained in AMLC records subpoenaed by the impeachment court.
The AMLC executive director is testifying under Article II of the impeachment case, which accuses Duterte of amassing unexplained wealth and failing to fully and truthfully disclose her and her husband’s assets, liabilities and net worth.
The defense has repeatedly challenged the admission and presentation of AMLC records on confidentiality and relevance grounds.
Earlier Monday, the impeachment court also rejected a defense bid to prevent Buenaventura from testifying on financial transactions involving Carpio.
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