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Day 12: Highlights of Corona impeachment trial at the Senate

February 6, 2012 7:03pm
Call to Order

  • At 2:11 p.m., the trial was resumed.
  • Senator-judge Miriam Defensor-Santiago was absent.

ITRs of Corona’s son-in-law
 
  • Presiding officer and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, over the objection of Chief Justice Renato Corona’s lead defense counsel Serafin Cuevas, allowed private prosecutor Arthur Lim to resume his direct examination of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) chief even though cross-examination had started.
  • BIR commissioner Kim Henares produced the income tax returns (ITRs) from 2005 to 2010 of Corona son-in-law Constantino T. Castillo III (husband of Carla Corona), which were marked in court.
  • Enrile did not allow Lim to read the contents of Castillo’s ITRs for “propaganda” purposes, and chided Lim for pointing out “unnecessary details” in describing the documents.
  • The presiding officer Enrile added that the impeachment court will not accept evidence on paragraph 2.4 on allegations of ill-gotten wealth because the Senate has disallowed this.
  • After Enrile stressed that the prosecution must demonstrate the relevance of the ITRs to Article II on lack of disclosure in Corona’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALNs), Lim said they were trying to show that the La Vista property belongs to Corona because his daughter and her husband did not have the financial capacity to buy the P18 million property.
  • The prosecution also presented a deed of sale for shares at the exclusive The Palms Country Club from Filinvest in the name of Corona and his wife, that were not declared in his SALN.
 
BIR ‘investigating’ Corona
 
  • Henares said the BIR was “in the process of investigating” Corona in connection with his tax declarations and SALNs from 1992 to 2010, and that a “letter of authority notice” was sent to Corona to tell him some revenue officers were auditing his ITRs.
  • Continuing his cross-examination, Cuevas asked Henares if the inaccuracies in Corona’s SALNs could be corrected in accordance with Civil Service rules. Henares replied that corrections cannot be made because the SALNs are made under oath and if these can be amended at anytime, then filing SALNs would be useless.
  • Cuevas asked Henares if she did not find “anything wrong” in conducting the probe while the impeachment trial is ongoing, which he said “smacks of persecution.” In reply, she told him it is the duty of the BIR to investigate any wrongdoing regarding taxes.
 
‘Discrepancies’ in Corona’s SALNs and ITRs noted
 
  • Prosecutor Lim asked Henares to expound on the discrepancies found by the BIR. Cuevas challenged Henares’ credibility in drawing conclusions on Corona’s assets, but Lim pointed out that the lead defense counsel himself had asked the BIR chief for her opinion on the matter.
  • Henares said the BIR used the “net worth method in assessing tax deficiency.” After comparing Corona’s SALNs, ITRs, and Certificates of Authority of Registrations (CARs) on his properties, the following “under-declarations” were found:
    • 2002: Corona did not declare nine properties in his SALN
    • 2003: He did not declare nine properties; the property in La Vista was valued at P3 million instead of P11 million; another property worth P2.5 million was declared as P821,080; his net worth was P7 million when it should have been P14 million
    • 2004: Same discrepancies as previous year; another property in Diliman, Quezon City was not included in the SALN; his net worth was reported at P7 million instead of P21 million
    • 2005: Same discrepancies as previous year; his declared net worth was P8.3 million when it should be P31.2 million
    • 2007: His net worth should be P24 million but he only declared P11 million
    • 2008: His net worth should be P25 million but he only declared P12 million
    • 2009: His net worth should be P52 million because of the Bellagio I property but he only declared P14.5 million
  • Enrile noted that the letter sent to Corona was issued on the basis of “tentative data” which gives the BIR the authority to examine the chief justice for possible tax deficiency.
  
  • In a resolution read by Senator-judge Vicente Sotto III, the impeachment court granted the request of the prosecutors to subpoena two bank managers along with documents related to Corona’s alleged bank accounts. However, the court set limits, such as requiring “prima facie proof of relevance” and specific documents “closely related to Corona’s filing of SALNs.”
  • The Senate ordered the managers of the Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) Katipunan branch and the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) Ayala branch to appear before the court on Wednesday, February 8.
  • The BPI executive was asked to bring copies of Corona’s account opening form and his monthly bank statements from December 31, 2005 to 2010. Meanwhile, the PSBank manager was asked to bring documents related to several bank accounts allegedly in the name of Corona from December 31, 2007 to 2010.
  •  When Cuevas asked for a reconsideration of the Senate resolution, Senator-judge Francis Escudero said only senator-judges can make motions to reconsider the court’s rulings.
 
Bank records from a “small lady”
 
  • Noting that the prosecution panel attached bank records in its request for the subpoenas, Escudero asked the prosecution to explain how they obtained the bank documents, pointing out that whoever released those documents had violated the Bank Secrecy Law.
  • House prosecutor Umali said a “small lady” he did not know handed the documents in an envelope to him as he was leaving the Senate, and surmised that these might have come from a “concerned citizen.” Sotto suggested that the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms view video footage captured by the Senate security’s closed circuit television cameras to determine the identity of the “small lady.”
  • Enrile said the Senate resolution has yet to decide whether the subpoenaed bank records would be admitted as evidence. He stressed that the Foreign Currency Deposit Act is a “very strict law” and that nobody is immune from the penalties for violation of the Bank Secrecy Law.
 
Free legal counsel contested by defense, prosecution
 
  • Commenting on the entry of appearances of new private lawyers, Cuevas claimed that P10 million in taxpayers’ money was being spent on the “avalanche of private prosecutors.”
  • In response, House deputy lead prosecutor Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said the private lawyers were providing legal services free of charge. He pointed to the defense team, which is composed wholly of private lawyers, and said Corona may be violating the law by accepting the “gift” of free legal services from “big law firms” that have pending cases in the Supreme Court.

Adjournment
  • At 5:57 p.m. the trial was adjourned.
  • The trial will resume at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

— Marlon Anthony R. Tonson/VS/YA, GMA News
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