Record of the Senate - Integrated Bar of the Philippines

72 TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2012Senator Drilon. Which is?Mr. Roy. The law regarding the secrecy of foreign currency deposits.Senator Drilon. The law on the secrecy of foreign deposits would exempt a government employeefrom revealing the dollar accounts?Mr. Roy. Yes.Senator Drilon. In the SALN?Mr. Roy. In the SALN as well.Senator Drilon. Thank you, Mr. President.The Presiding Officer. The gentleman from Pampanga.Senator Pangilinan. Mr. President, this is just an administrative matter. If I am not mistaken,yesterday or the other day, the Senate President had publicly stated his desire to extend the hours ofour proceedings so that we can hopefully terminate the proceedings before we go on sine dieadjournment. In fact, there was a proposal to have a....The Presiding Officer. Not later than the 31 st of this month.Senator Pangilinan. Yes. In fact, there was a proposal to have marathon hearings up to teno’clock in the evening.Yesterday, Mr. President, we went through hearings until around before five o’clock and today,we will be ending in a few minutes before 6:00, 6:30 and tomorrow we would not be conveningand Thursday we would not be convening.So, my concern, Mr. President, is perhaps, this should be discussed in caucus in view of thedevelopment and that we are now losing rather than gaining in terms of trial hours that we adjust fornext week and come up with a time table that will make up for lost time, Mr. President.The Presiding Officer. We will have a caucus on Monday.Senator Pangilinan. Thank you, Mr. President.Yes, the gentleman from Misamis Oriental.Senator Pimentel. Thank you, Mr. President. On February 13, 2012, if I am not mistaken, thisCourt issued a resolution to respect the TRO of the Supreme Court dated February 9, 2012, inconnection with the petition filed by PSBank against the Senate Sitting as an Impeachment Court andthe majority vote to respect was 13. Thirteen versus ten. And, in light of this development that, youknow, the dollar accounts of the Chief Justice are being discussed in the media, Defense Counsel hasraised the possibility of the Chief Justice himself confronting the issue head on.So, I believe, Mr. President, my colleagues, that it is time for us also now to really confront thisissue of the dollar accounts and since I premised my vote in that resolution on the reasoning that I wantto give the Supreme Court time to correct itself. I said that I exercise senatorial statesmanship hopingthat the Supreme Court will exercise judicial statesmanship by withdrawing the TRO, but I think a longperiod of time has passed and the Supreme Court has not acted on the TRO or lifted the TRO on thepetition of the PSBank, is that correct?