Corona on ‘ill-gotten wealth’: I’m not stupid

Even if it were true that he had amassed ill-gotten gains, he would not be so stupid as to put these in the names of members of his family, Chief Justice Renato Corona said on Friday.

“In the eyes of the people, if I got all my assets through illegal means, will I be careless/stupid enough to put [these] in my name, [or those of] my wife [and] my children…?” Corona said in a text message to reporters.

“I am a Supreme Court justice and … Chief Justice. I think I will not commit such a mistake/stupidity if indeed those were illegally acquired… Ano ba naman (Come on)!” he added.

The prosecutors at Corona’s impeachment trial claimed that he had declared only some of his properties in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs), and that others were undervalued and undeclared. They said any discrepancy in the documents should be enough to convince the senator-judges to convict him of the charges.

Corona has insisted that he had no ill-gotten wealth and that all of his five current assets were declared in his latest SALN. In last year’s statement, the Chief Justice declared his assets at P22.9 million with no liabilities.

Fortune zoomed 57%

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said that while government officials could fudge the values of  their  properties in their SALNs, the Chief Justice was still compelled to explain how his fortune zoomed by 57 percent in his 8-year tenure at the Supreme Court.

Gonzales told the Inquirer that there was “no hard and fast rule” on whether a government official should declare a property’s fair market value, zonal value or acquisition price in the SALN. But he said the acquisition price was recommended.

An ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the House of Representatives said the prosecution should not be too quick to conclude that Corona had undervalued his personal fortune based solely on his SALNs.

The Arroyo ally, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the subject, claimed that all government officials “undervalue” their assets in their SALNs, including the 188 lawmakers who signed the impeachment complaint against Corona.

“So the fact that Corona’s assets might be undervalued relative to the deed of sale does not in itself prove that he was a cheat. There are plenty of reasons why a government official would use other means to value his property, and there are no clear rules on this,” the Arroyo ally said.

Loopholes

Lead defense lawyer Serafin Cuevas had earlier argued that by themselves, Corona’s SALNs did not indict him because a person could overvalue his property if he wanted to borrow from a bank or undervalue it if he wanted to keep taxes manageable.

Still, Gonzales said, while the law allowed these “loopholes,” Corona should explain how his wealth suddenly jumped when he became a magistrate of the high court.

Corona’s SALNs showed that his net worth jumped 57 percent from P14 million in 2002 to P22 million in 2010, when he was appointed Chief Justice. His property documents submitted on Thursday showed that he had acquired five assets for a combined P36.5 million but declared these at only P14.2 million.

Defense too technical

Gonzales said that under the law, Corona had to explain the added wealth or it would be considered “ill-gotten” and a clear ground for eviction from office.

“The defense panel is being too technical about the proceedings. What do they want with this damning evidence? Wait for another year for us to impeach him when we already have this evidence now?” Gonzales said.