Corona salaries, perks for 10 years probed

MANILA, Philippines—Chief Justice Renato Corona’s salaries, allowances, and other benefits he received for 10 years went under scrutiny on Day 29 of the impeachment trial.

The Senate, acting as an impeachment court, spent the first two hours of the trial with the prosecution team and senator-judges questioning the defense team’s witness, Araceli Bayuga of the Supreme Court’s Cash, Collections and Disbursement Division, about Corona’s salaries and other benefits from 2002 to 2011.

Private Prosecutor Antonio Hernadez, who conducted the cross-examination of the witness, went directly on the issue of the salaries and allowances that the Chief Justice received for the past 10 years.

Bayuga, in her testimony Tuesday, said Coronas’ salaries, allowances and other benefits, amounted to P21, 636, 781.45 from 2002 to 2011.

“…In cash binibigay po namin sa kanila (We give them in cash),” Bayuga said when the private prosecutor asked how the allowances were given to the Chief Justice.

“In cold cash?” asked Hernandez, to which the witness answered, “Yes, in cash…In cash pong lahat (Everything in cash).”

Bayuga explained that she prepares the payroll and allowances of the Chief Justice and other justices of the Supreme Court but she was not aware how they were being spent.

“Wala na po kaming pakialam kung saan ginagamit (We don’t care how they are being spent),” she said.

When Hernandez concluded his cross-examination, Senator Franklin Drilon asked how the withholding tax was being deducted in the case of the Chief Justice.

Bayuga said the withholding tax is being deducted from basic monthly salary, longevity and year-end bonus in excess of P30,000.

In 2010, for example, Bayuga said Corona received a total of P88, 423.55 including the cash gift bonus of P5,000.

“But taxable income was only P53,423.55,” said the witness.

Asked then by Drilon how she considered the allowances being received by Supreme Court justices, Bayuga said, “They are income po.”

Senator Ralph Recto then stood up and pointed out that Corona’s fringe benefits and other allowances that were not taxable amounted to P3 million.

Recto explained that under the law fringe benefits were not subject to tax but employers are required to pay for it.