Corona lawyers defend petition for PCIJ subpoena, cites ‘vague’ laws on SALN
MANILA, Philippines – Lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona defended their petition before the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, to subpoena the executive director and staff of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism to testify on its reports about the filing process in the statements of assets and liabilities (SALNs) of public officials.
“Different people fill up the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) form differently showing a lack of uniformity”, which means “the rules are vague, the form is vague, the law is vague,” Jose Roy III said before the proceedings Wednesday.
“There are many ways, many standards that you can apply, and the form itself raises many questions so for instance, you can expect that an accountant might answer it differently from a lawyer, or from an engineer, or from a businessman, or from a banker,” Roy said.
The defense had requested the Senate to subpoena PCIJ executive director, Malou Mangahas, and staff on their articles about the officials’ SALNs.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Wednesday that he would not act on the request because he did not see its relevance in the impeachment trial of Corona.
“We have to show what is the accepted practice or what is the perceived practice [in the SALN filing process],” Roy said.
“We think that that is important enough because even the issues of valuation [and] timing of declaration, all of these, if brought into trial, will show that there is a disagreement or there is a lack of uniformity in the filling up of the SALN,” he added.
One of the points that have been debated in the trial was the Chief Justice’s failure to indicate the acquisition cost of his five properties in his SALN.
The lack of standard process of filing meant that “the rules are vague, the form is vague, the law is vague,” Roy said. “It will strengthen the position that the lack of uniformity makes it difficult to establish a serious offense that amounts to a culpable violation of the Constitution.”
“Just because one high official says you must [indicate] the acquisition cost and so forth, doesn’t mean that that is correct, some might take the view that that is an option,” Roy said.
“I hope we should be allowed that leeway, even the senators are presenting their own views of what the SALN should contain,” Roy said.
