/ PALACE DEMONIZING CJ
MANILA, JANUARY
24,
2012 (TRIBUNE) By Angie M. Rosales and Gerry
Baldo - Depending on the skills of the prosecution, Impeachment Court presiding
officer Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile estimated that it would take them a
month to present their evidence against impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona
since evidence presented in the trial does not need specifications.
Enrile also denied allegations that the proceedings are being delayed.
"There's really no delay in the proceedings. What's delaying the trial is the
marking of the documents. That's why I told both parties not to be too detailed
in their evidence.
Complaints of "delays" even among his colleagues, some senator-judges, have
been aired lately.
Asked on Sen. Panfilo Lacson's plan to raise in their caucus the issue of the
defense panel's continuing objections to some matters which he viewed as
unnecessarily delaying the proceedings, Enrile admitted that it's one difficult
task to resolve.
"The pace of the trial is something that I cannot control. No court can say
that they can dictate the pace of the proceedings or order the participants to
expedite the process.
"You are dealing with a fellow human being. You are going to dishonor him,
take him out of a high post in government. It's in the Constitution. We are not
merely buying meat from the market," he said.
"My estimate, if they're skillful in their presentation of evidence, it will
take them (only) a month. The defense panel will have a month to present
their evidence. Most of the evidence does not need specification like SC
decisions. Those are public records," Enrile said.
Enrile, however, would not give an assessment on the performance shown so far
by the members of the prosecution panel, including their private lawyers.
"I will not pass judgment on the prosecution. I beg off to judge a fellow
lawyer. I do not know them, first of all I don't know their capacities and I
also am not aware how long have they been handling cases," Enrile said.
Observers of last week proceedings noted how Sen. Franklin Drilon's
questioning somehow managed the prosecution from exacting needed information
from the witnesses.
Enrile explained that he cannot blame both the prosecution and the defense
panels if they resort on technicality because "this rule evolves over 1,000
years of trial."
"We cannot avoid the technicality because we are judging one person here.
Perhaps it would be too technical for those who can't understand but these are
tools to get those who need to be punished," Enrile said.
"The senator-judges cannot say we have to rush the proceedings because we are
dealing with the interest of a fellow human being, you're going to dishonor him,
you are going to take him out of the high position in the government," he added.
After what he termed as 'birth pains' both for prosecution and defense panels
during the first four days of trial, Enrile expressed optimism that the trial
would now be smoother and quicker as the prosecution continues to present
evidences and witness starting on Tuesday to prove that Corona is guilty of
Article 2 of the eight articles of impeachment.
Article 2 deals on "failure (of Corona) to disclose his SALN." Under the same
article, the prosecutors also accused the Chief Justice of amassing ill-gotten
wealth which he allegedly failed to declare in his SALN.
Last week, Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III said the
impeachment trial is expected to last even beyond the March 24 adjournment of
Congress for the annual Lenten break.
House prosecutors, meanwhile, said Senator-judges in the impeachment
complaint should not inhibit from the impeachment trial simply because they
wanted to ferret out the truth.
According to the House prosecution panel said that the call of the defense
panel for the Senator-judges to inhibit is unfounded and baseless.
"Why would the senators be punished for bringing out the truth that the
defense has sought to conceal? Even a four-year old knows that honesty is the
best policy," Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo, spokesman for the prosecution
panel, said in an interview.
Quimbo was reacting to the statement of retired Justice Serafin Cuevas,
Corona's lead counsel, that members of the defense team may call for the
inhibition of some senator-judges should they continue to display bias and
partiality in their lines of questioning during trials.
Quimbo said it should be Corona who should take a leave of absence out of
delicadeza.
"If there is any inhibition that defense lawyers should be asking, it is the
Chief Justice from the Supreme Court. He should take a leave of absence,
especially considering that more evidence on his alleged undeclared ill-gotten
wealth has come out."
"If defense counsels want their client to display delicadeza, he must go on
leave until his trial is over otherwise all his actions now will be highly
suspect," said Quimbo.
"No basis at all. The senators have the right to ask clarificatory questions
to the witnesses," Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, lead public prosecutor.
Earlier, Sen. Franklin Drilon denied being partial to the prosecution
following his questions which purportedly benefitted and boost the prosecution's
goal.
Citizens Battle Against Corruption Rep. Sherwin Tugna, a public prosecutor,
agreed with Tupas citing Senate Rules of Impeachment which allows senator judges
to ask questions from witnesses, defense and prosecution lawyers.
"As judges, this is their right and duty to ferret the truth. The defense
should not use technicalities to hide the truth about the Chief Justice."
Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, also a spokesman for the prosecution team,
said he hopes that the latest defense's statement is not part of another
purported dilatory tactic.
"I hope this is not another delaying tactic from the defense's seemingly
bottomless bag of legal trickery and technicalities. Note also that a vote to
inhibit or abstain operates like a vote of acquittal so it's no surprise they
are moving for it, we will definitely oppose such moves," said Angara.
"There is no basis whatsoever. An impeachment is not an ordinary trial. It is
a trial where the public has a huge stake as the main question involved is
whether the public is better off with the Chief Justice continuing in office, or
if the public would benefit if he is removed for the charges. Senators are
allowed to ask questions under the senate rules, and if the tendency is to
elicit the truth, then I think we all benefit," Angara said.
The prosecution panel is confident that the Senate impeachment court will be
guided by the "search for truth" rather than legal technicalities in dealing
with the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Quimbo said they expect the senator-judges to guard the impeachment
proceedings against the "whims and caprices" of defense lawyers, who are out to
raise all sorts of objections just to prevent the truth from coming out.
"Among lawyers, we were always taught that if you want to hide something, use
all technicalities that you can raise to prevent its disclosure," Quimbo said,
as he pointed out how the defense vigorously objected to the prosecution's
presentation of Corona's Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN)
and the titles and deeds of sale to his undeclared real estate properties.
Quimbo said: "It's frustrating since this is certainly non-controversial
considering that they are public documents. Even the SALN which came from the
respondent's (Corona) office was being objected to."
"I hope the defense stops putting roadblocks that prevent us from getting to
the truth," he added.
Fellow prosecution spokesman Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada said the Senate has
to be more liberal in applying the rules in the impeachment trial, particularly
in admitting evidence pertaining to Corona's ill-gotten wealth.
"The prosecution must not be prevented from presenting as much evidence as
possible before the impeachment court, not only to convince the senator-judges
of the truthfulness of the allegations against Mr. Corona but more importantly
to satisfy the public's thirst for truth and justice," Tañada said.
The House prosecution panel is pushing for a more liberal application of
rules during the impeachment trial after some senators expressed reservation
over the admissibility of prosecution evidence showing that Corona has acquired
high-priced real estate properties, which he either failed to include or did not
correctly declare in his SALN for the years 2002 to 2010.
The defense panel, on the other hand, has repeatedly objected to the
presentation of evidence on the ill-gotten wealth, arguing that it was not
properly alleged in the Articles of Impeachment filed against the chief justice
with the Senate.
"We should not be too technical about this. We hope the senator-judges will
not be tied down by strict rules considering that impeachment trial is not a
criminal trial," another spokesman Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara said, noting that
legal technicalities that characterize criminal procedure have no place in the
impeachment trial.
Angara reiterated that Corona was impeached by 188 members of the House
because he was unfit for the job, and recent revelations showing that the he
lied in his SALN, which he made under oath, only confirmed this.
He said it is of the "highest interest" to the public that the prosecution be
allowed to present all evidence necessary to prove the charges of betrayal of
public trust, graft and corruption, culpable violation of the Constitution and
bias in favor of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, against Corona.
The young lawmaker explained that in impeachment trials, excluding evidence
must be somewhat less important than in a criminal trial since senators "cannot
be kept from hearing about proffered evidence and taking into account as they,
severally, see fit."
He added it would be a tragedy if Corona's unexplained wealth does not come
out during the impeachment trial. "We would not only be wasting government time
and resources, but we would also be disappointing the Filipino people whose only
desire is for the truth to come out."
Meanwhile, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the procution evidence
pertaining to sale of property by Corona to a certain Rivera couple for P8
million in 2010 may even be evidence in favor of the Chief Justice.
He said that the Chief Justice's statements of assets, liabilities and net
worth for 2009 showed net worth of P14 million which rose to P22 million the
following year.
"But if we add the said sale of P8 million received by the Coronas from the
proceeds of the sale in 2010, it justifies the P8 million increase of Corona's
net worth,"Macalintal said.
A newly-formed bloc in the House of Representatives comprising the 188
signatories to the resolution that impeached Corona have started to call
themselves Movement 188 and claimed the chief magistrate's camp is in "panic
mode" with barely a week into the Senate trial, owing to the prevalence this
early of evidence buttressing the prosecution panel's charges that he had
allegedly amassed ill-gotten wealth — and was thus no longer morally fit to
serve at the helm of the High Tribunal.
The Movement 188 said the surfeit of diversionary moves and scare tactics
mounted by the Corona camp and its allies at the end of Week 1 of the
impeachment trial show that they are "already running scared" and hell-bent on
preventing the whole truth from coming out, more so now when the 11-member team
of House prosecutors is set to present more official and authentic documents and
more reliable witnesses in the second week of the impeachment trial proving that
the beleaguered chief justice had misdeclared and/or underdeclared his assets in
his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALNs).
Among these latest dilatory and scare ploys, they said, are the plans by the
Corona camp and its allies to put the Senate Impeachment Court in a
"straitjacket" by asking the Supreme Court to make certain senator-judges
inhibit from the trial.
The group also alleged that the Corona camp is set to file an urgent motion
for a temporary restraining order (TRO) for the Supreme Court to stop the Senate
from proceeding with the trial.
Movement 188 stalwarts belonging to the various majority-coalition parties
include Reps. Maricar Apsay (Compostela Valley), Joy Bernos (Abra), Roy Loyola
(Cavite), Rene Relampagos (Bohol), Dan Fernandez (Laguna), Roger Espina
(Biliran), Leo Ocampos (Misamis Occidental), Albee Benitez (Negros Occidental),
Carlo Lopez (Manila), and Ben Evardone (Eastern Samar).
They said the Corona camp "is obviously in panic mode this early as they have
already seen this writing on the wall: the Chief Justice is going down in the
face of solid evidence underlining the barefaced discrepancy between his
SALN-declared assets and his true-but-concealed assets that were uncovered in
last Thursday's testimonies by the respective Registers of Deeds of Taguig,
Quezon and Marikina cities."
"The slew of evidence presented and testimonies made during the Thursday
session were but the tip of the iceberg as our House prosecutor-colleagues are
due this second trial week to present more authentic witnesses and more official
documents establishing that the Chief Justice had, at the very least, repeatedly
committed perjury in his annual SALN declarations, which already manifested a
betrayal of public trust that warrants his immediate eviction from the High
Court and permanent disqualification from holding public office," they added.
Corona's annual SALN declarations during his incumbency as member and, later,
head of the Supreme Court were surrendered last Thursday by SC Clerk of Court
Enriqueta Vidal after much resistance from the defense panel.
Based on his SALNs, the chief magistrate's declared net worth had jumped from
P14 million in 2002 to P22 million in 2010, which was not commensurate with his
combined legal income as a public servant over that eight-year period.
FROM THE TRIBUNE
Palace, prosecutors demonizing CJ on ITR By Gerry
Baldo 01/24/2012
Malacaang yesterday again commented on the impeachment case against
Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, saying that Bureau of Internal
Revenue (BIR) chief Kim Henares, has secured a go-signal from President Aquino
to attend todays trial as a witness, and evidently, she has also secured the
permission of Aquino to have the Income Tax Returns (ITR) of the Chief Justice
released.
As Pre-siding Judge of the Impeachment Court, Senate President Juan
Ponce-Enrile had already warned her to comply with all the requirements for
release from the President when she appears before the court.
Yesterday, the spokesman of the CJ pointed out that Corona has other sources
of income that might not be indicated in his income tax returns at the BIR.
In a radio interview, Ramon Esguerra was quoted as saying that the
prosecution panel has asked Henares to bring the ITRs of the CJ to show Coronas
declared income since he joined the High Court, but said that the defense hopes
that Henares testifies that there is a source.
As a BIR hcief, I hope she brings out the other sources of income, not just
salaries but allowances because that is not included there. These are
tax-exempt. Generally, these allowances are not supposed to be declared. There
is a pertinent revenue regulation here, he said during the radio interview.
Esguerra said the defense is protesting the move to subpoena Henares as well
as the income tax returns of Corona, his wife, Cristina; their children and
their in-laws.
BIR chief Henares also stated that the CJ is barred from having any other
jobs or businesses while he is in the Supreme Court.
Because hes a chief justice, he is not allowed to have any other job or
business, said the BIR chief.
The prosecution panel took the opportunity to subject the CJ to yet another
round of trial and conviction by publicity as pane members yesterday claimed
that the impending disclosure of the ITR and other tax records of Corona and his
family members are sending shivers down the spine of the countrys chief
magistrate that he has ordered his legal counsels to block plans by the
prosecution panel to make public these documents as evidence in his impeachment
trial.
Deputy Speaker Erin Taada, a spokesman of the prosecution team, said this is
making Corona very nervous.
The chief justice could be very nervous about what will happen once
Commissioner Henares reveals his tax records and that of his immediate family
members, Taada said.
Fellow prosecution spokesman Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo said Coronas tax
records are vital in proving his ill-gotten wealth as alleged in Article 2 of
the impeachment case filed against him.
We expected the defense panel to block this new damaging evidence against the
chief justice because they dont want the public to realize that he might have
amassed wealth that he cannot justify legally, Quimbo said.
If he has nothing to hide then he should allow the prosecution to present his
tax records without delay and objection, Quimbo added.
The prosecution alleged that Corona has acquired several properties which he
failed to declare in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALn)
since 2002. A close scrutiny of his net worth declarations versus his land and
condominium purchases showed that these were grossly out of proportion to his
lawful income.
Through records from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the prosecution will
prove at the very least that Coronas tax payments do not match the information
he declared in his SALn.
With the scheduled appearance of Henares in the impeachment trial, Quimbo
said he expects the defense panel to pursue the same strategy it employed when
it attempted, but failed, to prevent the presentation of Coronas SALn and the
titles and deeds of sale to the properties he either failed to include or did
not correctly declare in his SALn.
The ill-gotten wealth is clearly alleged in the articles of impeachment. Any
lawyer that you talk to would say the amassing of ill-gotten wealth is in the
body of Article 2. Its a clear ultimate fact, Quimbo said.
Quimbo noted that based on his SALn alone, there is an obvious attempt on the
part of the chief justice to suppress information pertaining to the sudden
increase in his wealth.
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 on the other way to hide his ill-gotten wealth, Quimbo said.
Enrile has instructed the BIR chief to submit Coronas ITR and other records
of the agency showing payment of taxes for various real property assets owned by
the SC official and his family.
By Monday morning, I would want you to be doing the tagging (of the
documents). Its the tagging thats delaying the proceedings, Enrile was quoted as
telling both the prosecution and defense panels last week before adjourning the
fourth day of the trial.
Taada said they expect Coronas defense lawyers to raise new objections
because the subsequent introduction of the SALn documents and the BIR tax
records would confirm that Corona has acquired several realty assets grossly out
of proportion to his lawful income.
Taada explained that the BIR records would also show that Corona s tax
payments do not match the information he declared in his SALn.
Quimbo added that based on Corona s SALn alone, there is an obvious attempt
on the part of the chief justice to suppress information pertaining to the
sudden increase in his wealth.
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 on the other way to hide his ill-gotten wealth, Quimbo said.
This developed as the newly-formed Movement 188 comprising the 188
signatories to the resolution impeaching the Chief Justice sneered at the Corona
camp for being in panic mode just a week into the Senate trial owing to the
prevalence this early of evidence buttressing the prosecution panels charges
that he had lied and owned ill-gotten wealthand was thus no longer morally fit
to serve at the helm of the high tribunal.
Lacierda confirmed that Henares has secured a GO signal from Malacaang to
attend todays resumption of the impeachment trial as a witness.
However, Palace officials have yet to be given their green light for Henares
to release the CJs ITR and other documents even it they are itching to do it.
In an interview with Palace reporters, presidential spokesmen did not
categorically confirm whether or not the BIR chief would be allowed by the
Palace to present Coronas ITRs as additional evidence that would largely
contribute to a conviction of the Chief Magistrate.
Lets wait for tomorrows hearing if it has been approved. Wed like to We have
not spoken to the President on that matter yet.
He however admitted that the Coronas ITR if presented to the impeachment body
would further strengthen the case against the SC chief justice.
What have we already uncovered in the impeachment court? 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. What else have we discovered? We have also
discovered the SALn. It was produced. The SALn showed that the properties stated
werethe properties, the time of acquisition, the source of the acquisition, the
amount of the acquisitionwere contrary to the The amount of acquisition as
stated in the SALn (was) a lot lower than the actual purchase price, the actual
acquisition price.
For instance, in the Bellagio, in the Taguig property, it stated six million;
whereas, in truth and in fact, the deed of absolute sale in the Bellagio sale
was around 14.5-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. 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? With Angie M. Rosales and Fernan J. Angeles
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
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HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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