Failure to declare acquisition cost not impeachable offense—defense
MANILA, Philippines—The Senate should rule on whether Chief Justice Renato Corona’s failure to declare the acquisition costs of his properties in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) constituted an impeachable offense, defense lawyers said Saturday.
If this were an offense, then all government officials who followed the prevalent practice of using fair market value, not acquisition cost, as the basis for declaring the worth of properties in SALNs should also be held liable, defense lawyer and spokesperson Tranquil Salvador III said.
“Before you make a ruling on the Chief Justice, is it something that could be reviewed? Is it something that could be corrected? That will lead us to the final question: Is that an impeachable offense? Assuming it’s non-compliance, is it sufficient to remove him from office?’’ Salvador told reporters at a news forum.
These questions should be resolved by the senator-judges before they issue the verdict, he said.
The prosecution claimed Friday that Corona undervalued his assets in his 2010 SALN, pointing out that he should have declared a net worth of P80 million based on the acquisition costs of his assets and bank deposits instead of P22 million.
The defense panel said they would present witnesses to clarify the issue of acquisition cost in Corona’s SALN, the major point of quibbling among senators in last Thursday’s hearing without trial responding directly to the prosecution’s claims. They said this would not necessitate Corona’s testimony.
“We’re not yet there,” Salvador said. “We’re still the ones presenting, how come they’re coming out with such opinion? They used to claim there was only P20-million discrepancy. If there’s anybody who should make such a conclusion, it’s the senator-judges.”
Corona filled out the fair market value column pertaining to his properties, but left the column of the acquisition cost blank in his 2010 SALN, a feature that was also observed in his SALNs dating back to 2002.
Defense spokesperson Karen Jimeno wondered if such an act should constitute an impeachable offense when government officials, apart from the justices, also subscribed to such practice in the filing of their SALNs.
“If the other government officials, including impeachable officers, failed to fill out everything (including the acquisition cost column), the question that arises is, is that an impeachable offense?… We’re still studying that to show if it’s relevant to the merits of the case, or if this is an institutional practice,” she told the forum at Annabel’s restaurant.
She agreed that there’s a mechanism in the law allowing an official to correct figures in his or her SALN, and that in Corona’s case, if there were errors, he could still rectify these.
She said it waspremature to say whether the defense would present the SALNs of officials to show that this was a prevalent practice.
Salvador said it was logical to say that if the impeachment court finds this to be an impeachable offense, then all the officials who subscribed to this practice should also be held liable.
“That would be a natural consequence. If and when, let’s say he’s acquitted on the sole basis that he did not fill up the acquisition cost column, this should lead the government to reexamine all filings of public officers, from top to bottom, if there were diligent and prudent compliance with the SALN,” he said.
