Senators gang up on Aquino’s grade school batchmate

Eulalio C. Diaz III INQUIRER PHOTO

Senators ganged up on Eulalio C. Diaz III, administrator of the Land Registration Office, for inconsistent statements he gave while being questioned about the list of 45 real properties that his agency allegedly traced to Chief Justice Renato Corona and his family.

“You know, compañero, you are giving us a bum steer (malabo itong istorya natin),” an annoyed Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told the LRA head.

Enrile made the comment after Senator Loren Legarda noted that Diaz told Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that it took him and his “technical guys” two to three days to prepare the list of 45 properties that computers traced to Corona, his wife Cristina and their children.

A prosecution spokesperson, Representative Romero Quimbo, revealed the list during a news conference shortly before Corona’s impeachment trial for betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution began on January 16.

Legarda added that Diaz later told Enrile that some titles that belonged to Corona were already on his desk when the lead prosecutor, Representative Niel Tupas Jr., called in early January and requested a list of Corona’s properties.

“So the titles were available even before there was a request from the lead prosector.  Did you begin the search when media started asking about the properties,” Enrile asked.

“I thought it was the best preparation,” Diaz replied.

Flip-flopping

Complaining that  Diaz’s statements were causing “more complexity and confusion,” Legarda noted another inconsistency when Diaz told Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago that his efforts to put together the list of 45 properties “had nothing to do with the impeachment trial.”

However, Diaz told Marcos minutes later that his data-gathering began after receiving a call from Tupas “around January 7 or 8” asking for “assistance (ayuda)” in gathering evidence against the Chief Justice.

“Would it be possible that someone advised you that the lengthier list you can come up with would mean a bigger publicity coup,” Marcos asked in Filipino.

“Did it occur to you that you would be doing the administration a favor by coming up with a long list of properties to make the case more interesting,” he added.

Diaz received a public dressing down from Santiago for his apparent carelessness in releasing the list of 45 properties without the benefit of verification.

“I forbid your ignorance, Mr. Administrator,” Santiago said when Diaz maintained that neither he nor the prosecution panel was accountable after the contents of his report on the 45 properties were publicized.

The prosecution panel had already stipulated that at least 24 of the properties listed do not belong to Corona, his wife or their children.

No verification

Diaz admitted during questioning that many of the entries were properties of namesakes of Corona family members.

He added that his agency’s “trace back” effort did not involve verification whether a property indeed belonged to a Corona family member or a namesake.

“Gross negligence occurs when the act is flagrant and palpable. You knew this was going to be used to try and destroy an incumbent official. You should have been more careful,” Santiago fumed.

Highly incriminatory

“Were you so extremely busy that day that you did not even note, ‘gee whiz, some of these names don’t even have Corona in it.’  You did not even say (the LRA) used a trace back system and asked the prosecution to ‘please check this for accuracy’ since you were working only with raw data,” she added.

Santiago said Diaz issued a document that was “highly incriminatory” and noted that he and the prosecution panel could be criminally liable for committing gross negligence following the public disclosure of its contents.

Diaz, a batchmate of President Benigno Aquino III in Ateneo elementary school, countered that he could not be considered a party to the prosecution panel’s efforts.

“I would have assisted also the defense if they requested data … I did not have to review these document lest I be found biased to one party,” he explained.

“Why am I not impressed by your answers, Mr. Diaz,” Santiago shot back.

“You have been trying to incriminate innocent persons. The crime of incriminating innocent persons (is) like planting evidence,” she added.

The senator then instructed prosecutors to “study your canons of judicial conduct. You are likewise in same geographical position (as Diaz). You are teetering on the brink of criminality.”

Under questioning by Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Diaz said: “I will not accept that I’m in cahoots with the prosecution team … I can’t also readily accept that it was a mistake transmitting the information.”