BSB Group, Inc. v. Go

Facts:

Petitioner, the BSB Group, Inc., is a duly organized domestic corporation presided by its herein representative, Bangayan. Respondent Sally Go is Bangayan’s wife who was employed in the company as a cashier, and was engaged, among others, to receive and account for the payments made by the various customers of the company.

In 2002, Bangayan filed with the Manila Prosecutor’s Office a complaint for estafa and/or qualified theft against respondent, alleging that several checks representing the aggregate amount of ₱1,534,135.50 issued by the company’s customers in payment of their obligation were, instead of being turned over to the company’s coffers, indorsed by respondent who deposited the same to her personal banking account maintained at Security Bank in Divisoria, Manila Branch. Upon a finding that the evidence adduced was uncontroverted, the assistant city prosecutor recommended the filing of the Information for qualified theft against respondent.

Respondent entered a negative plea when arraigned. The trial ensued. On the premise that respondent had allegedly encashed the subject checks and deposited the corresponding amounts thereof to her personal banking account, the prosecution moved for the issuance of subpoena duces tecum /ad testificandum against the respective managers or records custodians of Security Bank’s Divisoria Branch, as well as of the Asian Savings Bank (now Metrobank) in Jose Abad Santos, Tondo, Manila Branch. The trial court granted the motion and issued the corresponding subpoena.

The prosecution was able to present in court the testimony of Marasigan, the representative of Security Bank. In a nutshell, Marasigan’s testimony sought to prove that between 1988 and 1989, respondent, while engaged as cashier at the BSB Group, Inc., was able to run away with the checks issued to the company by its customers, endorse the same, and credit the corresponding amounts to her personal deposit account with Security Bank. In the course of the testimony, the subject checks were presented to Marasigan for identification and marking as the same checks received by respondent, endorsed, and then deposited in her personal account with Security Bank. But before the testimony could be completed, respondent filed a Motion to Suppress, seeking the exclusion of Marasigan’s testimony and accompanying documents thus far received, bearing on the subject Security Bank account. This time respondent invokes, in addition to irrelevancy, the privilege of confidentiality under R.A. No. 1405.

The trial court, nevertheless, denied the motion. An MR was subsequently filed, but it was also denied.

Issue:

Whether or not the evidence may be admitted to court by operation of R.A. No. 1405

Held:

No.

It is conceded that while the fundamental law has not bothered with the triviality of specifically addressing privacy rights relative to banking accounts, there, nevertheless, exists in our jurisdiction a legitimate expectation of privacy governing such accounts. The source of this right of expectation is statutory, and it is found in R.A. No. 1405, otherwise known as the Bank Secrecy Act of 1955.

R.A. No. 1405 has two allied purposes. It hopes to discourage private hoarding and at the same time encourage the people to deposit their money in banking institutions, so that it may be utilized by way of authorized loans and thereby assist in economic development. Owing to this piece of legislation, the confidentiality of bank deposits remains to be a basic state policy in the Philippines. Section 2 of the law institutionalized this policy by characterizing as absolutely confidential in general all deposits of whatever nature with banks and other financial institutions in the country. It declares:

Section 2. All deposits of whatever nature with banks or banking institutions in the Philippines including investments in bonds issued by the Government of the Philippines, its political subdivisions and its instrumentalities, are hereby considered as of an absolutely confidential nature and may not be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office, except upon written permission of the depositor, or in cases of impeachment, or upon order of a competent court in cases of bribery or dereliction of duty of public officials, or in cases where the money deposited or invested is the subject matter of the litigation.

Subsequent statutory enactments have expanded the list of exceptions to this policy yet the secrecy of bank deposits still lies as the general rule, falling as it does within the legally recognized zones of privacy. There is, in fact, much disfavor to construing these primary and supplemental exceptions in a manner that would authorize unbridled discretion, whether governmental or otherwise, in utilizing these exceptions as authority for unwarranted inquiry into bank accounts. It is then perceivable that the present legal order is obliged to conserve the absolutely confidential nature of bank deposits.

In taking exclusion from the coverage of the confidentiality rule, petitioner in the instant case posits that the account maintained by respondent with Security Bank contains the proceeds of the checks that she has fraudulently appropriated to herself and, thus, falls under one of the exceptions in Section 2 of R.A. No. 1405 that the money kept in said account is the subject matter in litigation.

The subject matter of the action in the case at bar is to be determined from the indictment that charges respondent with the offense, and not from the evidence sought by the prosecution to be admitted into the records. In the criminal Information filed with the trial court, respondent, unqualifiedly and in plain language, is charged with qualified theft by abusing petitioner’s trust and confidence and stealing cash in the amount of ₱1,534,135.50. The said Information makes no factual allegation that in some material way involves the checks subject of the testimonial and documentary evidence sought to be suppressed. Neither do the allegations in said Information make mention of the supposed bank account in which the funds represented by the checks have allegedly been kept.

In other words, it can hardly be inferred from the indictment itself that the Security Bank account is the ostensible subject of the prosecution’s inquiry. Without needlessly expanding the scope of what is plainly alleged in the Information, the subject matter of the action in this case is the money amounting to ₱1,534,135.50 alleged to have been stolen by respondent, and not the money equivalent of the checks which are sought to be admitted in evidence. Thus, it is that, which the prosecution is bound to prove with its evidence, and no other.

The admission of testimonial and documentary evidence relative to respondent’s Security Bank account serves no other purpose than to establish the existence of such account, its nature and the amount kept in it. It constitutes an attempt by the prosecution at an impermissible inquiry into a bank deposit account the privacy and confidentiality of which is protected by law. On this score alone, the objection posed by respondent in her motion to suppress should have indeed put an end to the controversy at the very first instance it was raised before the trial court.

In sum, the Court held that the testimony of Marasigan on the particulars of respondent’s supposed bank account with Security Bank and the documentary evidence represented by the checks adduced in support thereof, are not only incompetent for being excluded by operation of R.A. No. 1405. They are likewise irrelevant to the case, inasmuch as they do not appear to have any logical and reasonable connection to the prosecution of respondent for qualified theft.