03 AND 02 JANUARY 2001
BEFORE THE PHILIPPINE SENATE
(SITTING AS THE IMPEACHMENT COURT)
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MS. BANAL. He said that incorporation papers were given to us upon the instructions of Atty. Serapio.
REP. LIBARIOS. Now, you mentioned that you--under the regular procedure in your office, you indicate in that time log the name of the clients, on the basis of the activities that you perform in the office. In this particular case, involving the PIO Holdings and the Alexi Holdings, what did you indicate in the time log?
MS. BANAL. I just wrote there: "c/o ESS." Those were the initials of Atty. Edward Serapio.
REP. LIBARIOS. And after receiving--after filling up the log, the time log, what did you do with the time log?
MS. BANAL. I gave it to my secretary to be submitted to the accounting department.
REP. LIBARIOS. Now, Ms. Witness, if the documents, the Articles of Incorporation of the PIO Holding Corporations, together with the companion documents are shown to you, would you be able to recognize these documents?
MS. BANAL. Yes.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Are these premarked already? The original copies?
REP. LIBARIOS. Yes, Your Honor, we have a certified true copy of the documents.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Yes, proceed, and move a little faster.
REP. LIBARIOS. Okay.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The witness is a very intelligent witness. She is a lawyer.
REP. LIBARIOS. I am presenting to you....
THE PRESIDING OFFICER....a graduate of the University of the Philippines.
REP. LIBARIOS. I am presenting to you, Ms. Witness, the Articles of Incorporation of the PIO Holding Corporations, duly marked as Exhibit "AAA," kindly examine these documents and tell us if you can identify these documents?
MS. BANAL. (The witness is examining the documents.)
These are the incorporation papers for PIO Holdings Corporation.
REP. LIBARIOS. Miss Witness, let me call your attention to the cover letter of the Articles of Incorporation, particularly Exhibit "AAAA-1". There is printed herein the address of the corporation, 15-F Strata 100 Bldg, Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. This is the address as indicated herein. Can you please tell us if you know this particular address of the corporation.
MS. BANAL. This is the same address of the De Borja Law Firm.
x x x x x
REP. LIBARIOS. May I again call your attention, Miss Witness, to this portion of the Articles of Incorporation duly marked as Exhibit "AAAA-5".
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Cannot the parties stipulate on the existence of these documents. These are public documents.
REP. LIBARIOS. We will be asking, Your Honor, on the names of the incorporators and...
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. It is there in the Articles of Incorporation. I think this is a proper subject of stipulation.
REP. LIBARIOS. If they will stipulate, Your Honor, that these are the...
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Yeah, you make the offer for stipulation. I donít think the other party will object to the existence of these documents.
REP. LIBARIOS. Your Honor please, the prosecution would like to offer to the defense a particular stipulation that the incorporators of this corporation as well as the directors of the board are the following: Lorna Imelda Suarez...
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. It ís there already in the document itself. Cannot you stipulate on the existence of the document?
MR. MENDOZA. Your Honor please...
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. And perhaps if you want to have some kind of detail, then you may proceed on the details.
REP. LIBARIOS. And aside from that, Your Honor, if the defense after that is willing to stipulate that all of the five incorporators and the five members of the board are associates of the De Borja Law Office. That is the intent, Your Honor.
MR. MENDOZA. If Your Honor please, with the assurance of compañero or counsel or the prosecutors that these are authentic copies and that the fact she represents are true, we will stipulate on that. However, we make the observation that these are all irrelevant and immaterial. We hardly see even the slightest connection to jueteng in this Articles of Impeachment.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Correct. I say "correct" because if you are objecting to these documents, you can easily stipulate the existence then and then may reserve your objection at the time that a formal offer is made.
REP. LIBARIOS. How about my second offer?
MR. MENDOZA. With the stipulation, perhaps questions now can be dispensed with.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Exactly.
REP. LIBARIOS. Your Honor please, I have another request for stipulation regarding the identities of the incorporators and the members of the board that Lorna Imelda Suarez, Aruego, Avesado, Banal and Leslie de los Reyes are all associates of the De Borja Law Office.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. That was admitted by counsel already.
REP. LIBARIOS. He was only referring to the...
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Because he relied on your representations.
REP. LIBARIOS. Is there a stipulation, Your Honor?
MR. MENDOZA. On the representations of the prosecutor, we are willing to stipulate that they are associates of De Borja whatever law office?
REP. LIBARIOS. That those, the persons who notarized the documents are John Bello and the other persons listed in the set of documents are all members of the De Borja Law Office. If these are...
MR. MENDOZA. I think when we stipulated that these are authentic copies, part of the stipulation is that all of these persons who signed these are natural persons, they actually exist, they are living, active and lawyers.
SEN. ENRILE. Mr. Chief Justice.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Honorable Senator-Judge Enrile.
SEN. ENRILE. Mr. Chief Justice, I suggest to the gentleman who is handling the prosecution here in this particular case to be more circumspect. Youíre wasting our time as judges. Itís already admitted by the defense that that document...they accept the document. Regarding the existence of those corporations, regarding the incorporators thatís already admitted into the record.
REP. LIBARIOS. Your Honor please, with all due respect, the first admission was only on the existence of the document, so I asked whether they would admit on the identities that they are members of the De Borja....
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. There was an admission.
REP. LIBARIOS. There was an admission, Your Honor. My next request, Your Honor, is whether or not they will also admit that those persons involved for example, in the notarization of these documents are all members of the De Borja Law Offices and they are working in the De Borja. Thatís my other request for stipulation, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. What do you say, Atty. Mendoza?
MR. MENDOZA. So we can go home early, we stipulate also, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Okay then.
REP. LIBARIOS. Another request for stipulation, Your Honor, that listed in the registration data sheet of this corporation, PIO Holdings, we have the telephone numbers, 635-4276 actually refers to the telephone number of the De Borja Law Office.
MR. MENDOZA. I think this is going too far, Your Honor. We probably can stipulate again, but I think questions such as this would really be immaterial. How about telephone numbers of law firms? They have nothing to do with jueteng.
REP. LIBARIOS. If Your Honor please, what we are trying to establish is that this is corporation is actually a dummy corporation, a shell corporation, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Then go direct to the point.
REP. LIBARIOS. Thatís why weíre asking for the stipulation, Your Honor, so that we can proceed.
MR. MENDOZA. I think we can not stipulate any further, Your Honor. We have stipulated far enough, perhaps, too far, just so to accommodate the prosecution.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Then beyond what has been stipulated, you can move forward.
THE MAJORITY LEADER. Mr. Chief Justice.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. I understand, the witness, the defense counsel, Atty. Mendoza and prosecutor Libarios are all from UP, so why would you fight so much there?
THE MAJORITY LEADER. Mr. Chief Justice.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Honorable Majority Leader.
x x x x x
THE MAJORITY LEADER. Mr. Chief Justice, I now move that the impeachment trial stand in recess until 2:00 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, January 4, 2001.
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Any objection? Approved.
Recess until tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 o'clock.
THE TRIAL WAS SUSPENDED AT 8:14 P.M.
[CONTINUATION OF TESTIMONY 04 JANUARY 2001]
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Prosecutor Libarios may now proceed. The witness is warned that she would be testifying under the same oath.
REP. LIBARIOS. May I now proceed, Mr. Chief Justice?
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. You may now proceed.
REP. LIBARIOS. Ms. Witness, yesterday, you testified before this honorable Impeachment Court that sometime in October of 1999, you were asked to sign two Articles of Incorporation, namely, Pio Holding Incorporation and Alexie Holding Corporation. When these Articles were presented for your signature, did you have any participation in the preparation and drafting of these Articles of Incorporation and the other documents?
MS. BANAL. No, the documents were all prepared. In fact, in-corporation papers already contained the signatures of the other lawyers.
REP. LIBARIOS. You also mentioned that it was upon the request of Atty. Serapio, coursed through the secretary and the assistant, Atty. Michael de los Reyes, that you acted on the Articles of Incorporation of these two corporations. Now, at the time you signed these Articles of Incorporation, was Atty. Serapio already connected in Malacañang?
MS. BANAL. Your Honor, I believe he was already appointed Presidential Adviser.
REP. LIBARIOS. Now, after signing the Articles of Incorporation of the Pio Holdings and the Alexie Holdings, what did you do, if any?
MS. BANAL. After signing?
REP. LIBARIOS. After signing.
MS. BANAL. Well, I remember Atty. de los Reyes went back to me so I gave the documents back to him as completely signed.
REP. LIBARIOS. Based on the Articles of Incorporation, you appeared to be one of the incorporators, one of the five incorporators and one of the five members of the Board. Aside from these two positions, what other positions did you hold in these two corporations, if any?
MS. BANAL. Well, in the incorporation papers, it was also stated there that I was corporate secretary.
REP. LIBARIOS. Now, when these incorporation papers were presented to you and one of the papers mentioned that you are a corporate secretary, were you previously consulted that you will be listed as the corporate secretary of these two corporations?
MS. BANAL. No, Your Honor.
REP. LIBARIOS. May I call your attention, Ms. Witness, to these two exhibits, Exhibit "EEEE" and Exhibit "FFFF" referring to two Secretary's Certificates. I would like you to examine carefully these two....
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. You cannot be heard,
Mr. Counsel.
REP. LIBARIOS. I would like you to examine carefully these two Secretary's Certificates, dated October 19, 1999, bearing identical entry. Would you confirm that you signed these two Secretary's Certificates?
MS. BANAL. Yes, I signed these certificates the same day I signed the incorporation papers.
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