LRA exec gets an earful from Miriam over list of Corona 'properties'

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Wednesday berated a Land Registration Authority (LRA) official for his supposed "gross negligence" and for providing the prosecution team with an "inaccurate" list of 45 properties that supposedly belonged to impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.   During clarificatory questioning in Day 33 of Corona's trial, Santiago lashed at LRA administrator Eulalio Diaz III — a batch-mate of President Benigno Aquino III in Ateneo — for coming up with the list without checking if the properties, which  Diaz obtained through a computerized search in the LRA database, indeed belonged to Corona and his family.   The list was used by the House prosecution team to justify before the media their move to impeach Corona. However, as the trial progressed, they admitted finding out that some of the properties either did not belong to the Corona family or no longer belong to them, whittling down the figure from 45 to just over 20.   Santiago criticized Diaz for not even asking the prosecution its purpose for requesting the list.    "Did you ask what they wanted that for? You were innocent for the purpose?... You submitted a list... You did not even bother to go over," the feisty lawmaker told Diaz.   "You are a former Aquino employee official... yet you remained innocent of all this political activities?" she added, referring to Diaz’s professional relationship with Aquino starting when the latter was still a senator.   Santiago said Diaz, being an Ateneo law graduate, should have first checked the purpose of the prosecution for asking for such a list, given that the Corona impeachment was already "brewing into a political firestorm" at the time and that the list could be used "to destroy an incumbent official."   "Hindi mo ba naisip na ganoon ang magiging consequence niyan? You're an Ateneo graduate and a lawyer," Santiago said.   Santiago asked Diaz why he did not device a system that could filter names and properties in the LRA database, instead of doing a general search. She said she asked a computer expert how long it takes to develop such a system, and was told that it could be done within five days.   In response, Diaz told Santiago: "We do not normally do investigative work. By practice, we use the database — using transfer certificate of title — as a search engine."   Commendable ignorance?   At one point during her questioning, Santiago asked Diaz if either he or the prosecution should be blamed for the inaccurate property list. Diaz said: "It's not my fault."   Santiago responded, "So you are saying it's the prosecution's fault?" The LRA official answered: "I am not saying that."   Santiago then quipped: "I commend you ignorance," before accusing Diaz of violating the Civil Code for coming up with the list.   She said Diaz was not only guilty of "negligence but of gross negligence... either you or the prosecution."   Santiago cited a 1992 Supreme Court ruling to show that Diaz may have committed a "breech of duty by flagrant and palpable [and] gross negligence." She said, reading from another case this time with the Ombudsman, that Diaz's actions was "bordering on malice." The Aquino connection   In response, Diaz insisted he was not a party to the impeachment case.   Santiago also noted that aside from being a batch-mate at the Ateneo, Diaz had also volunteered to be in the President's legal team when he [Aquino] was still running for Senate.   Diaz also subsequently became a Senate staff of Aquino when the latter became a senator. When Aquino ran for president, Diaz volunteered to be part of his campaign team.   In August 2010, Aquino appointed Diaz to the LRA.   "You knew already that he was President whom you have supported for many years... and who wants Corona impeached," Santiago said.   "It didn't appear to me that way," Diaz said. - KBK, GMA News