By Aurea Calica │ The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines - The income tax returns (ITR) of Chief Justice Renato Corona will “connect the dots” on his alleged unexplained wealth, a Malacañang official said yesterday.
It is not yet clear if President Aquino will allow the release or presentation of the ITRs to the Senate impeachment court by Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) chief Kim Henares.
Corona’s camp said the ITRs are irrelevant and that they can only be released upon the approval of Aquino, who makes no secret of his disdain for the Chief Justice.
Supporters of the Chief Justice said they were saddened by the prosecution’s move to link the issue of Corona’s alleged illegally acquired wealth to the non-disclosure of his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) as discussed in Article 2 of the eight Articles of Impeachment. Defense lawyer Tranquil Salvador III argued that the issue of the release of Corona’s tax records is not within the ambit of Article 2.
But presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the ITRs were needed considering the discrepancies between the SALN of Corona and his actual list of registered properties.
“We have uncovered, for instance, the titles. Contrary to the statement by Chief Justice Corona that there were only five titles, there were in fact more than five titles that were uncovered by the prosecution team,” Lacierda said.
“What else have we discovered? We have also discovered the SALN. It was produced. The SALN showed... the properties, the time of acquisition, the source of the acquisition...the amount of acquisition as stated in the SALN (was) a lot lower than the actual purchase price, the actual acquisition price,” he said.
For instance, Lacierda said Corona only declared the value of his unit at the Bellagio Towers in Taguig City at P6 million when “in truth and in fact,” the deed of absolute sale showed it was P14.5 million.
“And so, we also know for a fact that Chief Justice Corona has been working in government for 20 years and, therefore, his only source of income should be his salary as a government official,” Lacierda said.
“And so, we need the ITRs. If the President should allow the release of the ITRs, we need the ITRs to connect the dots. There is this unexplained wealth. His source of income is limited and how was he able to acquire so much property in a span of so many years? And that should be explained and that would be revealed in the impeachment trial. So the prosecution is merely connecting the dots,” Lacierda said. He said he has not spoken with the President yet on the release of the ITRs. “But let’s wait until the impeachment trial comes, and if there is an authorization, it would be presented in court,” Lacierda said.
He said the acquisition of properties, the SALNs during Corona’s time in the judiciary would be analyzed vis-a-vis the ITRs “if they are so authorized by the President.”
Lacierda stressed it would be “self-serving” to say if Corona should already be convicted based on the wealth issue alone. “That’s why we would like the public to see all the evidences at hand. But what we have seen uncovered so far, clearly would suggest that there has been a misrepresentation on the part of the Chief Justice,” Lacierda said.
“So what do we need to prove? What we need to see is how much is (Corona’s) capacity (to pay?) Does Mr. Corona have the capacity to acquire the properties that he bought? And the ITRs will prove the financial capacity of Mr. Corona,” Lacierda said.
“And we saw in the (SALNs) of Mr. Corona that he does not have other businesses. So what we know is his only source of income is his salary as a justice of the Supreme Court and, therefore, that should be presented – the ITR of Mr. Corona should be presented,” Lacierda reiterated.
“What do his ITRs contain? Like we said...we are connecting the dots here. That’s the logic of the case – that’s the logic of the prosecution: to connect the dots and to see if these are wealth that is ill-gotten and… if he cannot explain it then that is considered unexplained wealth,” he pointed out.
Asked if the ITRs and the SALN would be enough to convict Corona, Lacierda said “it would not be proper for me to make a judgment at this point.”
‘Very relevant’
For House lead prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas, Corona’s ITRs are “very relevant” to pinning him down for amassing ill-gotten wealth.
The documents will “prove that the Chief Justice and his family have no capacity to purchase their properties, except through graft and illegitimate sources,” Tupas said.
He said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has already ordered the presentation of the ITRs of Corona and his family and has directed BIR chief Henares to submit them to the impeachment court.
Henares attended the impeachment tribunal’s hearing last Thursday but without the subpoenaed documents since she was still awaiting permission from President Aquino to bring them.
“She was directed to return tomorrow, when the trial resumes,” Tupas said. He lamented that while Corona has been professing that he is ready to face the charges against him, his lawyers appear bent on suppressing the truth.
“Is the Chief Justice afraid that if we show the ITRs, these will prove that his properties are ill-gotten wealth? Is the defense afraid for the truth to come out?” he asked.
During the first week of trial, the registrars of deeds of Quezon City, Taguig and Marikina presented to the impeachment court records of several of the Coronas’ properties in their respective jurisdictions.
Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., who heads the team prosecuting the charge dealing with Corona’s alleged failure to disclose his SALN, said the Chief Justice should have nothing to fear if he is regularly declaring his income.
“If he has been religiously declaring all his income that he used for the acquisition of expensive properties such as high-end condominium units, there is no basis to be afraid,” he said. “They are saying that the Chief Justice has nothing to hide. Why are they now opposing the presentation of ITRs? We should let the truth prevail and their opposition is baseless,” he said.
Prosecution panel spokesman Rep. Miro Quimbo of Marikina said he understands why Corona’s lawyers “are fighting to their last breath” for the suppression of the tax documents.
“They completely know that revealing the tax returns will destroy all their defenses and unmask what the prosecution has been saying: that the Chief Justice amassed wealth that cannot be supported by his legitimate income. It is a practical deathblow to all of Mr. Corona’s defenses,” he told a news conference. Thus, he said, defense lawyers would “use every technicality to prevent the documents from being disclosed.”
“Time and again, not only did he undervalue but he failed to report some of his properties for several years if only to evade the prying eyes of the public and to hide his ill-gotten wealth,” Quimbo said. “But the truth cannot be made secondary to technical and baseless objections,” he said. “The Chief Justice could be very nervous about what will happen once Commissioner (Kim) Henares reveals his tax records and that of his immediate family members,” Quezon Rep. Erin Tañada said.
Another prosecution spokesman, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, said the tax returns of Corona and members of his family “are to be produced as evidence of ill-gotten wealth.”
“Perhaps they are afraid that the ITRs will show that their legally declared income is insufficient to purchase all their assets. Otherwise they would not have anything to fear,” he said.
To Drilon’s defense
Prosecutors also defended Sen. Franklin Drilon, whom the Corona camp wants banned from participating in the trial for reportedly helping them convince SC clerk of court Enriqueta Vidal to release the Chief Justice’s SALN.
“No basis at all to prohibit senators from asking questions. That is their right under the Senate impeachment rules,” Tupas said. Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said the move to inhibit Drilon “is a delaying tactic meant to put a chilling effect on the senators.”
“It may be a dangerous trap to pave the way for Corona’s filing of a petition for a temporary restraining order with the Supreme Court to stop his impeachment after his SALN was exposed and found questionable,” he said.
Another member of the prosecution panel, Rep. Sherwin Tugna of the party-list group Citizens Battle Against Corruption, said senator-judges “have the right and the duty to ferret out the truth, regardless of who gets hurt.”
“When Sen. Drilon voted with the majority to reject the subpoenas requested by the prosecution for the Chief Justice and his family, they were happy,” he said.
He also told reporters that the prosecution hopes the impeachment court would not exclude the ill-gotten wealth charge in the impeachment complaint’s Article 2, which deals largely with Corona’s non-disclosure of his SALN.
“But even if the ill-gotten wealth charge is excluded, we have already established that the Chief Justice did not disclose his SALN and in fact did not declare his assets until he filed his SALN for 2010 in April this year, when he was already feeling the heat,” he said.
Tugna and Quimbo believe the testimonies of the witnesses last week and this week as well as the various documentary evidence available would be conclusive enough to prove Corona’s ill-gotten wealth.
The prosecution panel earlier announced that it has at least 13 witnesses for the second charge, including Henares, local tax assessors, and land registration officials.
“You know the link between the properties that he has amassed and the income as indicated in the ITRs that we will present and it would be conclusive that no income or salary as Chief Justice can you buy these properties,” Tugna said. “So we will do some matching, cross-matching where if there is nothing in the ITR that would indicate that capacity (to acquire properties), under the forfeiture law, the burden now shifts to them (defense lawyers) to prove how he was able to buy all those properties with that income,” he told The STAR.
The documents presented by registrars Randy Rutaquio, Carlo Alcantara and Sedfrey Garcia of Taguig, Quezon and Marikina cities showed that Corona had not accurately declared in his SALNs several properties belonging to him and his family.
Prosecutors said that based on Vidal’s testimony, Corona’s declared net worth mysteriously jumped from P14 million in 2002 to P22 million in 2010.
Quimbo expressed suspicion that Corona only bared his acquisitions in his 2010 SALN – filed in April 2011– when talk of his possible impeachment was rife.
He said Corona’s SALN was prepared after the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and when the House was hearing the impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo.
“This leads us to believe that the 2010 SALN was an attempt at a cover up or to correct or an afterthought,” Quimbo told The STAR. “Why did he suddenly execute that SALN? Maybe it was out of fear.” With Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero, Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy