Philippine Savings Bank v. Senate Impeachment Court, G.R. No. 200238, February 9, 2012

R E S O L U T I O N

(Re Application by Petitioners of a TRO)

I.      THE FACTS

Philippine Savings Bank (PS Bank) and its President, Pascual M. Garcia III, filed before the Supreme Court an original civil action for certiorari and prohibition with application for temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction. The TRO was sought to stop the Senate, sitting as impeachment court, from further implementing the Subpoena Ad Testificandum et Duces Tecum, dated February 6, 2012, that it issued against the Branch Manager of PS Bank, Katipunan Branch. The subpoena assailed by petitioners covers the foreign currency denominated accounts allegedly owned by the impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona of the Philippine Supreme Court.

II.    THE ISSUE

Should a TRO be issued against the impeachment court to enjoin it from further implementing the subpoena with respect to the alleged foreign currency denominated accounts of CJ Corona?

III.   THE RULING

[The Court en banc ISSUED A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER enjoining the respondents from implementing the subpoena. It also REQUIRED the respondents to COMMENT on the [merits of the] petition.]

YES, a TRO should be issued against the impeachment court to enjoin it from further implementing the subpoena with respect to the alleged foreign currency denominated accounts of CJ Corona.

There are two requisite conditions for the issuance of a preliminary injunction: 

(1) the right to be protected exists prima facie, and 

(2) the acts sought to be enjoined are violative of  that  right.    It must be proven that the violation sought to be prevented would cause an irreparable injustice.

A clear right to maintain the confidentiality of the foreign currency deposits of the Chief Justice is provided under Section 8 of Republic Act No. 6426, otherwise known as the Foreign Currency Deposit Act of the Philippines (RA 6426).  This law establishes the absolute confidentiality of foreign currency deposits:

   

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Under R.A. No. 6426 there is only a single exception to the secrecy of foreign currency deposits, that is, disclosure is allowed only upon the written permission of the depositor. In Intengan v. Court of Appeals, the Court ruled that where the accounts in question are U.S. dollar deposits, the applicable law is not Republic Act No. 1405 but RA 6426.  Similarly, in the recent case of Government Service Insurance System v. 15^th Division of the Court of Appeals, the Court also held that RA 6426 is the applicable law for foreign currency deposits and not Republic Act No. 1405. xxx.

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The written consent under RA 6426 constitutes a waiver of the depositor’s right to privacy in relation to such deposit.  In the present case, neither the prosecution nor the Impeachment Court has presented any such written waiver by the alleged depositor, Chief Justice Renato C. Corona.  Also, while impeachment may be an exception to the secrecy of bank deposits under RA 1405, it is not an exemption to the absolute confidentiality of foreign currency deposits under RA 6426.