MANILA, Philippines (1st UPDATE) - Quezon City 3rd District Rep. Jorge Banal approached a Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) executive to “help” House prosecutors in connection with a supposed dollar account of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Banal is part of the secretariat of the prosecution. He is a member of the Liberal Party.

Senator-judge Miriam Defensor Santiago asked that Banal be subpoenaed.

In response to questions from Senator-judge Loren Legarda, PSBank Katipunan branch manager Annabelle Tiongson said Banal approached her on January 31 and showed her a copy of a specimen card, similar to what the prosecution said came from a “small lady”.

She asked Banal how he got a copy of the specimen card, and Banal supposedly said: “If you will help us, I can tell you.”

Legarda was trying to source information from Tiongson as to how such a bank document could have been taken out from the bank’s premises. Tiongson claimed she, nor the three other officers who have access to the safety vault, did not disclose any information on Corona’s accounts.

“Did anyone ask you for information?” Legarda asked. Tiongson then revealed it was Banal.

“I thought that he was going to open an account. He presented himself as a Congressman. I thought he was still a [Quezon City] councilor…”

Banal supposedly showed Tiongson a 2-page document. “But he was partly covering it, I could not see everything.”

Tiongson said she only saw the name of Corona in the specimen card. She then told Banal that she could not help him.

She said that after Banal left, she checked the records. “I did [open the vault]. We checked the records if they were still there.”

She said the incident happened before PSBank President Pascual Garcia ordered the branch to bring to the main office the documents for safekeeping.

The prosecution earlier alleged that they got the specimen from a “small lady.” Rep. Rey Umali claimed the “small lady” approached him within the premises of the Senate on February 2.

Based on the document, the prosecution claimed the account had an initial deposit of “$700K”, which it interpreted to be $700,000 (around P38 million in October 2008), although it said in its subpoena that it could not vouch for the authenticity of the document.

A subpoena was issued in connection with this. However, it became a subject of a dispute among senator-judges since the accounts contain information on foreign currency deposits which are absolutely confidential unless the depositor agrees to disclose the information.