Banal untruth of the small lady story!

Now we are finally getting somewhere in the “small lady” story where a spurious document under question was used to subpoena banks officials in the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. It seems that a conspiracy to deceive the Filipino public was undertaken by the Prosecution panel in order to get the bank accounts opened and bring officials to court.

Big Man Congressman Rey Umali, a former customs deputy under the Arroyo Presidency, is under fire for lying to the impeachment court in saying that a small lady passed on the documents to him. Congressman Umali, who is also a Prosecutiion Panel member is being castigated publicly for the small lady lie, this after PS Bank Manager Tiongson revealed that she was visited by Congressman Bolet Banal of Quezon City and revealed the same suspect document to her and asked her assistance to verify the existence of Corona’s PS Bank Accounts.

Tiongson in her testimony stated that Banal went to the Katipunan branch of PS Bank and showed her the documents which were used by the prosecution to request for the subpoena duces tecum ad testificandumn issued to PS Bank officials. Banal for his part, an official in the prosecution impeachment secretariat, confirmed that he visited Tiongson. According Banal. a Liberal Party member since 2002, he received the fake documents when it was left in his gate.

Now, between the 2 Congressmen, the little lady lie already unravels. Congressman Umali claimed it was given to him in the Senate while Congressman Banal says it was left in his garage gate. How they will piece the 2 contradicting stories will be another tale of lies.

Here is how it may go in the succeeding days. Congressman Umali, who perfected the art of evasion in the customs bureau under GMA will claim that he met the small lady in the Prosecution Secretariat in the Senate because that is the only area where there are no CCTV Cameras, they think. They will say that Congressman Banal brought the small lady in after she finally approached Banal in person to own the documents. Meanwhile they will look for some brave soul to become the small lady. Someone who is not afraid of being prosecuted for violating the bank secrecy laws of the Philippines. She may even be a Congresswoman and claim parliamentary immunity from suit just to put a cap to this sordid affair. The Senators will not be pleased.

Deflection is already being used by the publicity managers of the prosecution by saying that because of this, the truth about the bank documents was unearthed. This is also followed up by Legal opinions from the likes of Dean Amado Valdez who is anti-Cuevas and who himself has ambitions of becoming a Justice in the Supreme Court. The President, much as he did today, will go on the attack and take the tack that the public should focus on the true issue which is corruption while the liberal party Senators continue to take up his bidding in the trial.

Word has it that because of the ineptitude of the prosecution team and magnitude of deception, they were castigated in a confidential liberal party meeting held a few days ago.

Senator Enrile meanwhile is trying to ferret out the truth by grilling the PS Bank officers on their measures of securing the bank documents of Corona. Bank President Garcia meanwhile explained that they transferred to the PS Bank main office all the related documents of Corona after the visit of Banal to its Katipunan office.

The Prosecution team led by Tupas knew something was amiss that is why they never wanted Tiongson to be their witness. Poor Girl was probably afraid she would meet the maker soon if she told the truth about the Banal visit that was why she may have been so evasive at the onset of her questioning. It was also revealed that some Liberal Senators had been pressuring George Ty, owner of Metrobank the mother company of PS Bank to reveal the documents officially prior to the trial itself.

Instead of covering up for the lies and the deceit, the President should castigate his people for undertaking such an act akin to the Watergate scandals that brought down Nixon. How can an act like this be perpetuated by law makers themselves, when they threaten, cajole and lie to the public just to follow the President’s whims.

Don’t get us wrong, we Filipinos want the truth as well. But we want it in a way that will not insult our intelligence or the moral fiber of this nation. Let the search for truth be done in a lawful manner where our constitution is respected and the rights of citizens held high.

If we let these shenanigans and deceitful acts go unpunished, if we allow our lawmakers to violate the law with utmost impunity and disregard for it, if we allow ourselves to become sheeps once again, we might just end up in another dictatorship – a fascist Presidency that controls all 3 branches of government with ultimate power to trample over our rights.

So is the small lady story true?

Small Lady, Big Congressman, Huge Mistake!

The “Small Lady” story has been hounding the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona as the Senate seeks to find out if the documents submitted by the prosecution, and whose source is the small lady, is a fake. Lawyers for PS Bank and the President of PS Bank stated that the documents are not the same, contain alterations and are PEKE or local vernacular for fake. Presiding Judge Juan Ponce Enrile has insisted however that they bring the original document to compare the documents to those presented by the prosecution panel and attached to the subpoena.

Several Senators have berated the prosecution panel for the allegedly fake document and their submission of this to the impeachment body without any prior sleuthing on their part. Big Man Congressman Rey Umali has continued to stick to the small lady tale even as the CCTV Senate Cameras did not find any footage of the actual transfer of documents from the small lady to the big congressman.

This story has been determined as a huge mistake in terms of making the impeachment process faster. Questions of law on evidence and a TRO from the Supreme Court has damaged the prosecution case indubitably. As they try to solve this snag, the prosecution has changed their position by publicly saying that the accounts of Corona has been verified by the PS Bank President despite of questions on its authenticity.

The Senate impeachment court will be hearing more from the PS Bank today on the fake document issue. On another note, there are some PS Bank customers who have claimed that their accounts have been tampered and are filling cases against it.

The Big Congressman through his small lady story may just be a huge mistake for the impeachment court, the prosecution and the banking industry!