Impeached CJ Corona celebrates 67th birthday in arraignment
Impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona arrives at the Sandiganbayan with his wife Cristina during his scheduled arraignment for perjury over alleged underdeclared Statements of Assets and Liabilities Networth (SALN). Photo by Marc Jayson Cayabyab/INQUIRER.net
The Sandiganbayan on Thursday deferred the arraignment of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona as he faces perjury charges for his alleged underdeclared Statements of Assets and Liabilities Networth (SALN).
READ: Court of Tax Appeals stops Corona’s arraignment
The antigraft court pushed through with the scheduled arraignment even if it falls on Corona’s 67th birthday.
Corona moved for deferment because of his pending motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court on the Sandiganbayan’s finding of probable cause against Corona.
The court canceled the scheduled arraignment and reset it to Jan. 26, 2016.
The disgraced former Chief Justice arrived at the courtroom with his wife Cristina. They also face a separate P130 million civil forfeiture case.
READ: Corona arraignment reset for 7th time by tax court
Corona is charged before the Sandiganbayan of eight counts of perjury and eight counts of violations of Republic Act (RA) 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials, which requires public officials to file truthful SALN.
The perjury charge is the latest of Corona’s cases since he was impeached by Congress in 2012 on false declarations of wealth in his SALN.
The Ombudsman in its information said based on banking documents, Corona’s actual cash deposits ballooned from P1.337 million in 2002 to P137.9 million in 2010. The discrepancy between Corona’s actual cash deposits and his declared wealth in his SALN amounted to P134.4 million.
The Ombudsman also cited the Land Registration Authority records on several properties owned by the Corona spouses in Quezon City, Makati City and Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, and established that these were significantly undervalued by P17.297 million.
In sum, the Ombudsman came up with a conservative estimate of P130.336 million in Corona’s unexplained wealth.
The Ombudsman accused Corona of perjury for failure to include his numerous peso and dollar bank accounts in his 2003 to 2010 SALNs, a condominium unit at the The Columns, Makati City in his 2004 to 2009 SALNs, and a condominium unit at Spanish Bay Tower in Taguig City in his 2005 to 2009 SALN.
Corona also allegedly underdeclared a condominium unit in Bellagio I in Taguig City in his 2010 SALN with an acquisition cost of P6.8 million when the true acquisition cost is P14.51 million. In his SALNs from 2003 to 2009, Corona also reportedly undervalued his property at La Vista in Quezon City with an acquisition cost of P3 million when its actual is P11 million.
Corona was also charged with violation of RA 6713 for not filing true and detailed SALNs for 2003 to 2010 due to thee discrepancies between his declared wealth and actual bank deposits. He also failed to declare his real assets in Makati, Taguig and Quezon City. RAM
