Prosecution denies saying Corona has 45 properties

(Updated 4:29 p.m.) The prosecution panel on Thursday denied that they had claimed Chief Justice Renato Corona owned 45 properties, most of which were also supposedly not declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).   "The 45 [properties] did not come from the prosecution.  Ang alam po namin 24, hindi po 45...Yung iba cancelled po, naibenta," chief prosecutor Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. said during Thursday's impeachment proceedings.   He made the admission after Sen. Francis Escudero asked how many more properties they intend to present since they had initially declared to prove that Corona owned 45 properties.   "If my count is accurate, so far the prosecution has presented 24 properties.  You announced to the media that it's 45. Do I take it you're presenting 21 more?" he said.   Escudero was referring to the subpoena request made by the prosecution where they asked the Senate to order Corona and some of his family members to testify in connection with 45 real estate properties in the cities of Makati, Parañaque, Marikina, Taguig, and in Quezon City.   The prosecutors made the request days before the trial began last month. Corona denied this, saying he only owned five of the 45 properties.   On Thursday, Tupas admitted that they will "not reach 45 [properties]."   Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada questioned him on who made public the 45 supposed properties.   "Sino naglabas sa media noon?" he asked. "Pinalalabas ninyo maraming ari-arian si Justice Corona, when in fact [24 lang]."   Tupas, however, said 24 was still a lot of properties.  He likewise insisted that they did not release the list to the media.   He explained that the list of the properties came from a letter by the Land Registration Authority (LRA) that was attached to the subpoena request.   "It was a letter not coming from the prosecution.  We did not release it to the media.  We filed it to the impeachment tribunal," Tupas said.   Tupas added that they are "not bound by the 45 properties."   "We have presented 21 properties, we may present more," he said.   Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, presiding officer of the impeachment court, asked both the defense and the prosecution to "be fair" with each other.   "'Yan po ay utos ng taongbayan sa kanilang saligang batas. May obligasyon tayo na sundin ang utos ng makapangyarihang taongbayan," he said.   He likewise said that they should stop the discussion and proceed with the trial. - KBK, GMA News