Chief Justice Renato Corona. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
What is the “value” of Chief Justice Renato Corona’s properties that should have been declared in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs)?
On Day 30 of the impeachment trial Thursday, prosecutors alleged that Corona had “undervalued” the condominium units disclosed in his 2010 SALN.
Corona’s lawyers admitted the discrepancies between the acquisition costs of these properties and their fair market and assessed values.
But they informed the impeachment court that the values included were based on their respective tax declarations, as shown by official documents and the testimony of Roberto Villaluz, officer in charge of the Taguig City assessor’s office.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, the presiding officer in the impeachment trial, scolded the prosecution for “belaboring” the discrepancy during the cross-examination of Villaluz.
“You are arguing about values here. We will never end this hearing if that is your procedure. So ordered,” Enrile told private prosecutor Jose Benjamin Panganiban, reminding him also that the second article of impeachment alleged Corona’s failure to publicly declare his SALN.
“If all of those assets were included in the SALN, there’s compliance with Article 2. Now, you must show that the asset was not included,” he said.
Panganiban noted that Corona’s The Bellagio unit in Taguig City was acquired at P14,510,225. But as per its tax declaration, it had an assessed value of only P3,928,320 and a market value of P6,547,200.
Another Taguig property, the Bonifacio Ridge condominium unit, was bought at P9,159,940, but had a market value of P2,369,980 and an assessed value of P1,421,990, he said.
Contradictory
“We are proving right now that the acquisition cost, the actual value or the current fair market value at the time of the acquisition of these properties, is far, far greater than that indicated in the SALN,” Panganiban said.
Enrile told the private prosecutor: “I understand that, counsel. The SALN of the Chief Jusitce is an official document submitted by him and it reflects there the values that he attached to the properties that he declared in that SALN.”
“Now, the tendency of your questioning is that those values do not show the real acquisition cost. I agree with you,” he said.
“That’s why you have to introduce evidence to contradict those values to prove the true value appearing in those properties by the declarant of that SALN and you have already done that. So, what is the point of belaboring the issue with this witness?
A defense lawyer, Dennis Manalo, said Villaluz was presented to “prove the accuracy” of the entries in Corona’s 2010 SALN.
“We will prove through this witness that the assessed values and fair market values are based on the values approved by the city assessor’s office of Taguig,” he told the court.
Daughter’s property
Manalo said Villaluz’s testimony would also show that there was “basis for the noninclusion” of a property located at McKinley Hill subdivision in Taguig in the SALN. The witness produced a copy of the property’s transfer certificate of title showing that it was owned by Corona’s daughter Charina, who is based in the United States.
Corona’s SALN as of Dec. 31, 2010, declared as assets a Quezon City house and lot acquired as a “donation” in 1970. Its assessed value was P337,820 while the current fair market value was P7,138,000.
A separate Quezon City condominium unit acquired on installment in 1997 had an assessed value of P276,320 and a current fair market value of P921,000. A Makati City condominium acquired in 2003 had an assessed value of P726,000 and a market value of P1,210,000.
Assessed value
A Taguig condo unit bought the following year was worth P1,421,990 (assessed value) and PP2,369,980 (fair market value). Another condo in the same city was acquired in 2010 and had an assessed value of P3,496,320 and a market value of P6,800,000.
Under questioning by Enrile, Villaluz said an assessed value, which is computed for tax purposes, is lower than the market value.
In case of condominiums, he said the latter is determined by multiplying the unit cost with the floor area. The assessed value is then arrived at based on a “schedule” of “assessment” enacted by the city council.
Panganiban later referred to a provision in the Local Government Code requiring buyers of properties to declare in a sworn statement the “true value of their property,” particularly its “current and fair market value … as determined by the declarant.”
The private counsel then asked Villaluz: “Do you confirm that Chief Justice Corona, as far as the Bellagio and Bonifacio Ridge are concerned, never filed any sworn statement as to the actual value of these properties with your office?”
Manalo objected, saying the witness was testifying only on the tax declarations. Enrile allowed the witness to answer “if he knows.” Villaluz told the court: “As of today, I have no knowledge of that.”
Senator Aquilino Pimentel III pointed out that Panganiban omitted Section 204 of the Local Government Code, which was authored by the senator’s father and namesake.
No big deal
Pimentel noted that while the provisions cited by the private counsel required a property owner to issue a sworn statement, the assessor’s office could also take care of the job.
“It’s not such a big deal if the duty is not complied with because (Section) 204 has the mechanism to correct the situation when the people do not discharge their particular duty,” he said.
Another defense lawyer Tranquil Salvador, was asked by reporters later why Corona only declared the “assessed value” and “current fair market value” of the properties appearing in his SALNs since 2002 and left out the space for “acquisition cost.”
“There is no confusion on assessed value and fair market value since they were only copied from the tax declarations. More of a concern (for the senator-judges) is the acquisition cost, (an issue) which we will be facing (next week),” Salvador said. “We will address this in the coming days.”
The more important question, he said, was the net worth or “real worth” of Corona, not the assessed or fair market value. With reports from Michael Lim Ubac, Cathy Yamsuan and Cynthia D. Balana