House prosecutors present Senate with formal offer of evidence against CJ Corona

The prosecution team on Friday submitted to the Senate, sitting as the impeachment court, its formal offer of evidence consisting of almost 400 documents in support of allegations that Chief Justice Renato Corona concealed his assets and consistently favored former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in cases that reached the high court.   In a statement late Friday, the prosecutors said they submitted to the Senate evidence on the following articles of the impeachment:

• Article II (non-disclosure of properties in Corona’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth or SALN)

• Article III (lack of probity, integrity and independence)

• and Article VII (irregularities in the issuance of a temporary restraining order for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last November).

Chief prosecutor Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. said he is confident that the Senate will find all their documentary exhibits "relevant" to the case and admit them as evidence.   For Article II, prosecution is submitting Corona's SALNs from 1992 to 2010, titles covering various properties owned by the chief justice and his wife, Cristina, and his tax records from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.   Several titles of properties, originally registered in the names of Corona and his wife, but were eventually transferred to their children, are part of the evidence for Article II. P84 million in undeclared wealth   The SALNs were offered as evidence that Corona supposedly failed to make "complete and truthful" disclosures of his assets, including pricey condominium units and "huge" bank deposits which were allegedly "grossly disproportionate" to his and his wife's income.   Tupas claimed that Corona's undeclared wealth is worth at least P84 million.   Based on evidence, Corona’s two bank accounts with the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) contained P19.7 million, while another account with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) had some P12.02 million, or P31.72 million in 2010 alone, according to the chief prosecutor.   He said Corona either undervalued or did not declare in his SALN three real estate properties worth P27.2 million, specifically condominium units in The Bellagio, Bonifacio Ridge and The Columns.   Also offered as evidence are business records of the firm Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc., the company of Mrs. Corona’s family, from which the chief justice allegedly received P11 million in cash advance in 2003.   It was earlier reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked BGEI’s certificate of registration that same year.    On Article III,  the prosecutors said they offered as evidence various rulings of the Supreme Court on the case of the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) versus   Included in this set is a 2008 decision reinstating laid off crewmembers. The ruling also ordered flag carrier Philippine Airlines to pay the crewmembers P2.3 billion in back wages.   In an Oct. 4, 2011, resolution the Supreme Court reversed its 2008 decision after receiving and basing its resolution on four letters of PAL lawyer Estelito Mendoza to the SC clerk of court. These were also submitted by prosecution as evidence against Corona. Corona failed to act with 'competence...'   The documents supposedly proved Corona failed to act with “competence, integrity and independence as a member of the judiciary” in connection with the high tribunal’s flip-flopping on the FASAP case.   Offered as evidence on Article VII are several high tribunal directives supposedly showing Corona's partiality toward Mrs. Arroyo in granting a temporary restraining order (TRO) that allowed the former President and her husband, Jose Miguel, to leave the country and evade prosecution.   The dissenting opinion of Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno was included in this batch.   Tupas said 17 witnesses were presented for Article II, including BIR commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares, the SC clerk of court, registers of deeds, as well as BPI, PSBank, Megaworld, Ayala Land, and Burgundy Realty Corp. officials.   One witness was presented for Article III — FASAP president Roberto Anduiza, who accused Corona of meddling in the dispute with PAL management.   The prosecution witnesses who testified on Article VII were Justice Sec. Leila de Lima, Mrs. Arroyo’s attending physician Dr. Juliet Lopez-Cervantes, two officers from the Malacañang Records Office, an officer from the Office of the Vice President, two cameramen from ABS-CBN, and a video librarian from the same network.   On Tuesday, Feb. 28, the prosecution team decided to rest its case against Corona after 25 days of trial. They said they will no longer present evidence on the five remaining Articles of Impeachment, because they have enough evidence to convict the chief justice.    The prosecution’s verified complaint — the basis for Corona’s impeachment signed by 188 members of the House of Representatives on Dec. 12, 2011 — originally carried eight articles of impeachment against the chief justice. r