CAN THE impeachment case against the Vice President sustain the public’s curiosity before the Senate tries it in August?
News feeds are now swamped with Atong Ang and a purported whistleblower’s narration that can lead to a fishing expedition in Taal Lake.
Or is this the hope of some defenders all along – that not proceeding with the trial “forthwith” will slowly kill interest in accountability in offices of high station.
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One of the charges against VP Sara Duterte is that her statement of assets liabilities and net worth (SALN) does not accurately reflect the amount of cash contained in her bank accounts.
As the presidential elections were reaching full gear in 2016, then senator Antonio Trillanes revealed a bank account in Ortigas, Pasig, that then candidate Rodrigo Duterte held jointly with daughter Sara.
Nominal deposits were made by the press and other pundits. These were accepted by the bank, thus confirming the existence of the account.
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Rodrigo Duterte became President but did not execute a waiver of bank of secrecy specific to that particular account.
The Ombudsman at the time was Conchita Carpio-Morales – a paternal aunt of Mans Carpio, Sara’s husband.
Yet the Ombudsman did not stop her deputy Melchor Arthur Carandang from investigating the bank accounts of a sitting president.
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Duterte was sensitive to references to his bank deposits. He would snap at people who would bring it up.
In one speech in August 2018, Duterte said he would resign if it was ever shown that he had over 40 million pesos in his bank accounts.
In the course of his inquiry Carandang mentioned that the documents Trillanes revealed during the 2016 election campaign period were similar to the records that the Anti-Money Laundering Council had provided his office.
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Trillanes said Rodrigo and daughter Sara’s joint bank accounts in Pasig alone had more than 1.7 billion pesos in deposits and transfers. He said Rodrigo and Sara had other joint accounts in Greenhills and Davao City.
We know what happened to Carandang. He was suspended and eventually dismissed by the President despite a Supreme Court decision saying that a deputy ombudsman is not under the administrative control of Malacañang.
To complete the process, Carandang was ordered dismissed by Ombudsman Samuel Martires on June 17, 2019. We are not aware whether Carandang had enough energy to elevate his dismissal to the Supreme Court.
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Carandang is a potential witness in the impeachment trial of VP Sara. He has personal knowledge of the investigation that he conducted when he was still a deputy ombudsman.
His testimony can be quite compelling because an impeachment trial is a known exception to the sanctity of secrecy in bank deposits. It can lead to further inquiry into Sara’s other bank accounts, including that of her husband and other relatives.
The plunder law penalizes ill-gotten wealth amassed by a public officer in connivance with relatives.
Justice Antonio Carpio might be correct in predicting that House prosecutors will likely move to subpoena those bank records./PN
