March 31, 2012
By Jess Diaz
The Philippine Star
The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines – The Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on the Senate impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona suggests that his lawyers should do better than “beating around the bush,” a prosecution spokesman said yesterday.
“The message of the survey to them is that they should present a more credible defense and answer the charges directly. The first two weeks of presentation of their case was full of holes,” Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said.
According to the survey, 73 percent of Filipinos want the Senate impeachment court to hand down a guilty verdict on Corona.
Angara said the opinion poll was conducted from March 10 to 13, more than a week after the prosecution had rested its case and two days into the presentation of evidence by the defense.
“They spent their first two days by questioning the impeachment process in the House of Representatives, an issue that the impeachment tribunal had resolved on Day One of the trial,” he said.
He noted that no less than widely respected constitutionalist and law lecturer Fr. Joaquin Bernas had criticized defense lawyers for “beating a dead horse” by resurrecting the issue.
Angara said failing to assail the impeachment process, Corona’s lawyers then proceeded to present testimonies which hardly explained the impeachment charges against the Chief Justice.
“There is no explanation yet on the P31 million found in three bank accounts of CJ Corona as of Dec. 31, 2010,” he said. “That huge amount was not declared in his 2010 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).”
The defense said the P31 million belonged to Basa-Guidote Enterprises, Inc. (BGEI), the family corporation of Corona’s wife Cristina.
It has offered evidence showing the Manila city government paid P34.7 million for a property the corporation had sold to it.
While the defense was able to show that payment was made, it failed to prove that the money was entrusted to Corona and went to his personal bank accounts, he added.
Angara said no explanation was made on why Corona was years late in declaring in his SALN four condominium units he and his wife had acquired.
“His lawyers tried to justify his failure to declare his Ayala Avenue condominium, acquired in 2004, in his SALNs for 2004 up to 2009 by presenting testimonies that Mrs. Corona had complaints about their unit and that she accepted it only in August 2009,” he said.
However, Angara said some senator-judges, including presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile expressed the view that the Corona should have included the Ayala condominium in his SALNs because there was “value transferred” and that he and his wife already owned it as of December 2004.
“They have not likewise explained the dollar deposits in Philippine Savings Bank. We think those are so substantial as to prompt the Chief Justice to ask the Supreme Court to stop their examination,” he said.
Corona and his bank had petitioned the SC to stop the impeachment court from scrutinizing his dollar deposits. The SC issued a restraining order on the basis of PSBank’s petition.
PSBank president Pascual Garcia III had confirmed the existence of Corona’s five dollar accounts with the bank’s Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City branch.
The prosecution claims that one account holds “$700k,” which it interprets to mean $700,000.
Angara said the defense presented witnesses who claimed Corona earned as much as P26 million in salaries and allowances in 10 years beginning in 2002, apparently in an effort to show that he had the means to buy at least four condominium units in Global City, Taguig, Makati and Quezon City.
However, he said the defense has not shown if the Chief Justice used such income to purchase his properties.
“They left the issue hanging. They are in effect telling the people to make their own conclusion,” he said.
He also pointed out that if Corona is claiming he earned P26 million, he failed to declare such income in his SALN as he reported “cash and investments” amounting only to P2.5 million to P3.5 million.
“The defense is claiming that CJ Corona and his wife had as much as P90 million over a 10-year period. Where is that huge amount in his SALN?” he asked.
Surveys to continue
Pulse Asia will continue to conduct impeachment surveys despite the threat of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago to have its officers cited for contempt of the impeachment court if they do another public opinion poll.
Santiago made the threat after Pulse Asia revealed that its recent survey showed that 47 percent of Filipinos were of the view that Corona was guilty of the charges the House of Representatives has filed against him.
A subsequent opinion poll taken by Social Weather Stations showed that 73 percent of the people want the Senate impeachment court to convict Corona.
In a radio interview, Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes said his company would continue doing public opinion surveys on Corona’s impeachment.
“The way we understand it, a contemptuous act is committed if one violates an order of a court, and in this case, the Senate impeachment court. But there is no order from the Senate stopping us from conducting surveys on the ongoing impeachment,” he said.
Santiago urged Pulse Asia to reveal who commissioned its recent survey on Corona and who are its owners.
Holmes said no one commissioned its recent impeachment poll, since it was part of the company’s quarterly Ulat ng Bayan public service, he added.
As for his company’s owners, he said 60 percent of the shares “belong to academics, including myself.”
He admitted though that billionaire businessman Antonio “Tonyboy” Cojuangco, a relative of President Aquino, remains a stockholder of Pulse Asia.
“He was one of those who founded the company in 1999, together with another relative of the President, Rafa Lopa, who quit as company president in 2008 and turned the position over to me,” he said.
He said he did not think that politics was part of the founders’ motivation in organizing Pulse Asia.
“In 1999, no one thought that Mr. Aquino would become our president,” he said.
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