Corona moved $3 M on impeachment week – Ombudsman

OMBUDSMAN CONCHITA CARPIO MORALES continued her testimony on the alleged dollar accounts of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, this time telling the impeachment court that dollar accounts in Corona’s name saw withdrawals of at least $3 million in the week that Corona was impeached as well as the week that followed.

In fact, Morales stressed that her investigation revealed that there were other significant movements in the alleged Corona accounts on other “significant” dates, such as the 2004 and 2007 elections.

Morales said that on December 12, the day that Corona was impeached by the House of Representatives, there was a “placement” in one of Corona’s dollar accounts amounting to $417 thousand. On the same day, there was an “encashment to pesos” from that same account amounting to P 135 thousand.

Then on December 14, there was a purchase of a managers check using the same account to the amount of $388 thousand.

What followed was a bewildering series of movements in the account: $465 thousand in securities sold on December 15; a $75 thousand debit memo on the same day; a withdrawal of $ 343 thousand still on the same day; a purchase of a managers check for $487 thousand on December 19; a withdrawal of $ 22 thousand on the same day; and a debit memo of $687 thousand on December 20.

Morales told the impeachment court that the withdrawals from the account amounted to $3,388,323 for the month of December 2011.

At the same time, Morales said there was a $500 thousand deposit to the Bank of the Philippine Islands Acropolis branch on May 12, 2004, just two days after the May 10 Presidential elections. Then, there was another $500 thousand deposit on May 14, 2004.

For the 2007 midterm elections, Morales said there were at least five major transactions involving the BPI San Francisco del Monte dollar account being linked to Corona on May 3, 2007 alone: a deposit of $293 thousand; another deposit of $134 thousand; a deposit of $63 thousand; a deposit of $53 thousand; and another deposit of $ 15 thousand.