LRA chief is Carpio’s nephew, says lawmaker

Administrator Eulalio Diaz III of the Land Registration Authority (LRA) should have disclosed his blood ties with Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to explain the list of 45 properties his agency claimed was owned by impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“He should have bared this fact so the public will know where he is coming from,” House Deputy Minority Leader Milagros Magsaysay said in a text message.

Diaz’s grandmother and Carpio’s father were said to be siblings, making the LRA chief a nephew of Carpio, known as one of the founders of the influential law firm Villaraza Cruz Marcelo & Angangco, popularly known as “The Firm.”

Magsaysay, a representative of Zambales, said the government should adhere to its commitment to full transparency and declare the real motives behind the impeachment of Corona.

She noted that the revelation that Carpio was a relative of Diaz would bolster the allegation of Corona that Carpio was behind moves to oust him because the associate justice was coveting his post.

She said this should also explain why the LRA came out, on the request of Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., the prosecution lead counsel, with a list of 45 properties allegedly owned by Corona a few days before the start of the impeachment trial on January 16.

The prosecution would later admit that Corona owned 20 of the properties, while the defense insisted that Corona owned only five as listed in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Senators Joker Arroyo and Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada berated Diaz for misleading the senator-judges for releasing an unverified list of Corona’s properties.

Diaz said the LRA made a routine search of Corona’s properties in its databank and that he expected Tupas and the prosecution panel to verify the list.

Marikina Representative Romero Quimbo, a prosecution spokesperson, said the prosecution was not aware that Diaz and Carpio were related.

Quimbo refused to make any more comments, saying the prosecution had declared a “ceasefire of hostilities” in the spirit of the Lenten season.

Carpio is widely perceived to be next in line to succeed Corona should  the seat of the Chief Justice becomes vacant, although President Aquino insisted that he had yet to make up his mind, hinting that he might tap another magistrate or someone outside of the tribunal.

Corona himself, in his recent media interviews, accused Carpio of wanting to be a Chief Justice and claimed that The Firm was behind efforts to oust him.

Former Defense Secretary Avelino “Nonong” Cruz, a cofounder of The Firm, is providing legal advice to Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II in his pursuit of his electoral protest against Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Roxas is arguing that his 3 million votes that were nullified could have erased Binay’s 730,000-vote lead over him in the 2010 vice-presidential race.

Pundits claim that Carpio’s appointment as Chief Justice would pave the way for Roxas’ victory in the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to be chaired by Corona.