Renato Corona: Don’t believe her lies

Chief Justice Renato Corona. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona on Tuesday broke his silence and dismissed as “lies” the allegations leveled against him and his wife Cristina by the latter’s cousin, Ana Basa.

“Don’t believe her lies,” Corona said in a text message to reporters, referring to Basa’s claims in an exclusive interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“She and her branch of the family have been uttering and repeating those lies for the past 30 years,” he said.

Corona said Basa and her family were “not even stockholders of the corporation.”

In an interview on Monday, Corona’s lawyer, Ramon Esguerra, said Cristina was “virtually the owner” of Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. when the family-owned firm sold a piece of property to the city government of Manila in March 2001.

The proceeds of that sale were reportedly deposited in Corona’s name at the Katipunan, Quezon City, branch of Philippine Savings Bank.