Defense wants to present execs' SALNs to show 'common practice'

Impeachment trial lead defense counsel Serafin Cuevas said his camp might present Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of other government officials to show it was a "common practice" not to declare acquisition costs of their properties. Asked why impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona did not declare the acquisition costs – or cost at time of purchase – of several of his properties in SALNs, Cuevas told reporters at the Senate: "Siguro that was what was actually done. Hindi nailagay iyon dahil it was a common practice." But Cuevas quickly said that Corona did not intentionally omit acquisition costs in his SALN simply because the chief justice knew others were not doing it anyway. "I would not say just because [in] all [SALNs] there is none, he [Corona] will not also put his," Cuevas said after last Thursday's impeachment trial. Cuevas said they will be submitting to the Senate impeachment court a "summary" of the SALNs. "If we are ever to do that [presenting other SALns], it's simply because we want to show that apparently [not putting the acquisition cost is commonly done and] is not meant to be intentional or malicious," he said. The lead defense counsel however said they will still see if they would be able to secure copies of other government officials' SALNs, which are supposedly public documents. The defense had repeatedly insisted that the law on SALN allows a public official to make corrections on discrepancies, so long as the errors were not done in bad faith. In his SALN, Corona declared, based on deeds of sale, the fair market value of the Bonifacio Ridge unit at P9,159,949 and the Bellagio unit at P14,510,225. The total value of the two is more than P23.6 million.   However, in the same SALN, the total value of the two properties was listed as P18,438,980, showing what Lacson called a "discrepancy" of around P5 million. Lacson also pointed out that the total amount was placed under the "acquisition cost" column. Lacson insisted that Corona should explain why he did not include acquisition costs in his SALNs and prove the discrepancies were not done in bad faith, even as he called on the chief magistrate to finally testify. Lacson joined a growing list of senators publicly calling for Corona to testify in the trial, including Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and Sens. Ralph Recto, Loren Legarda and Antonio Trillanes IV. — LBG, GMA News