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Day 6: Highlights of Corona impeachment trial at the Senate

January 25, 2012 6:06pm
Call to order
 
  • Wednesday’s session started at 2:06 pm.
 
  • Senators Loren Legarda and Koko Pimentel were absent when Senate President and Presiding Officer Juan Ponce Enrile declared the resumption of the trial of the impeachment case of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
 
Evidence on alleged ill-gotten wealth disallowed
  
 
  • However, Senator-judge Franklin Drilon clarified that the impeachment court had not yet ruled on Article II paragraph 2.4, which alleged ill-gotten wealth. Instead, he stated that evidence for paragraph 2.4 was “merely subject to admissibility.”
 
  • House lead prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. said his panel reserved the right to file a motion for reconsideration upon receipt of the court’s written resolution. But Senator-judge Francis Escudero pointed out that only senator-judges can seek reconsideration of a ruling of the Presiding Officer, and not any of the parties to the impeachment case.
 
  • Enrile said that with respect to the subpoenaed income tax returns (ITRs) of Corona and his family, the prosecution panel must first show the connection of the ITRs to the impeachment case.
 
BIR commissioner takes witness stand
 
  • Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares took the witness stand. Private Prosecutor Arthur Lim conducted the direct examination.
 
  • Lim said the prosecution offered Henares’ testimony to show that Corona had acquired properties declared in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs) but not justified by his income as reported to the BIR, and that Corona had tried to hide some of these properties under the names of his children.
 
  • Defense lead counsel Serafin Cuevas objected to the purpose of the offer, stating that Henares had to testify on personal knowledge of the documents and that any evidence would be immaterial, irrelevant, and impertinent, and thus inadmissible as evidence to prove Article II.
 
  • Lim explained that the prosecution wants the witness to authenticate public documents submitted to her office. He said this would show that the Corona couple cannot justify their acquisition of condominium units and other properties after considering the couple’s income.
 
  • Cuevas said that if the only purpose of Henares’ testimony was authentication, then the defense team would admit all documents relating to the Coronas’ ITRs as genuine documents in the BIR records.
  
  • As Lim and Cuevas were deliberating loudly, Senator-judge Miriam Defensor Santiago set them straight about proper court decorum.
 
Corona’s income from SC
 
  • Enrile asked Lim to state the purpose for presenting Corona’s ITRs. Lim replied that the income the Coronas declared under oath in their ITRs from 2002 to 2010 would show that the couple cannot justify their acquisition of expensive properties.
 
  • But Enrile pointed out that the trial dealt with Corona’s SALNs, and that whatever Corona did before becoming Chief Justice had no relevance to the impeachment trial. He told the prosecutors that if they had evidence to show that Corona had properties not declared in his SALNs, then they should now produce such evidence to the court.
 
  • Lim said Corona had not filed income tax returns from 2002 to 2010 because he was on the “alpha list” of employees whose income taxes are withheld by the SC. The list is submitted annually to the BIR, which classified Corona as a “local employee” of the Supreme Court whose income came solely from his government salaries and did not earn any income from business.
 
  • Henares was presented to authenticate the alpha list of the Supreme Court. She explained that the filing of the alpha list was in lieu of individual filing of ITRs under Sec. 51 of the National Internal Revenue Code. Henares said that from 2002 to 2005, the Supreme Court did not file its alpha list; hence Corona had no ITRs for those years.
 
  • In reply to a question from Senator-judge Ralph Recto, the BIR commissioner said that in 2006, the SC withheld P109,000 in taxes from Corona’s income of P400,000, adding that Corona’s gross income in 2007 was P488,000; in 2008, it was P604,000; in 2009, it was P621,000; and in 2010, it was P657,000.
 
Mrs. Corona’s income and properties
 
  • Corona’s wife, Cristina, did not file any ITR but had registered as a taxpayer in 2003, when she bought property in La Vista, Quezon City, Henares said. Mrs. Corona registered as a one-time taxpayer after paying capital gains tax and documentary stamp tax for the property.
 
  • Henares said the certificate authorizing registration of the La Vista property indicated a sale price of P11 million. She said the BIR would further investigate the sale because Mrs. Corona did not file any income tax return that year, and the origin of the funds used to purchase the property was unclear.
 
  • On the alpha list of John Hay Management Corp. from 2007 to 2010, when Cristina Corona had served in the corporation’s board of directors, Henares said Mrs. Corona’s income for 2007 was P623,000; for 2008, it was more than P1 million; for 2009, it was P1,106,000; and for 2010 it was P409,000.
 
  • Henares said President Benigno Aquino III had provided written authorization to release the Coronas’ ITRs and furnish the impeachment court with pertinent documents on the properties allegedly owned by the Corona family.
 
  • Upon the query of Senator-judge Pia Cayetano, the BIR commissioner said Mrs. Corona received as director’s fees P233,000 in 2006; P220,000 in 2008; P318,000 in 2009; and P240,000 in 2010.
 
  • Upon further inquiry by prosecutor Lim, Henares disclosed that the BIR also issued certificates to Mrs. Corona for the purchase of a P3.5-million condominium unit with parking space at The Columns in Ayala Avenue, Makati in 2004; a P9-million property in Bonifacio Global City on Nov. 16, 2005; and the P14.5-million Bellagio One property in December 2009.
 
Other Corona properties
 
  • In December 2003, a BIR certificate was issued to the Corona couple to purchase a condominium from Burgundy Realty Corp. for the acquisition cost of P2.5 million, Henares said.
 
  • In 2010, a BIR certificate was issued for a piece of property in Pansol, Diliman, Quezon City, in which Mrs. Corona was listed as the seller while the buyer was her daughter Maria Carla Corona-Castillo, for the acquisition cost of P18 million, Henares added.
 
  • In March 2010, another BIR certificate indicated that the Corona couple sold the Pansol property for P8 million to Amelia Rivera, Henares said.
 
  • In December 2011, a BIR certificate was issued for the sale of P700,000 worth of shares of stock in The Palms Country Club, Inc. from Filinvest Alabang to the Corona couple, Henares said.
 
  • The presiding officer ruled that all documents must be marked in the morning before trial hearings begin, so as not to delay trial with “tedious marking.”
 
Adjournment
 
  • The session adjourned at 5:13 p.m.
 
  • The trial will resume at 2 p.m. Thursday, January 26.

- Marlon Anthony R. Tonson/YA/HS, GMA News
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