Honasan: Corona’s US properties may still be admitted as evidence

MANILA, Philippines —Senator Gregorio Honasan raised on Wednesday the possibility of admitting the alleged properties of Chief Justice Renato Corona in the United States as evidence in his impeachment trial.

Asked in a phone interview whether the prosecution could still raise the issue of the US properties as part of its rebuttal, Honasan said: “(Before the prosecution rested) they made a reservation on dollar account; everything is subject to approval of the court.”

The senator said, in effect, that as long as it could be shown that the properties had links to the dollar accounts of the Chief Justice, the prosecution could submit this evidence, but subject to the concurrence of 23 senator-judges.

“All, everything is subject to the approval of the court in caucus, or in open court through the presiding officer,” said Honasan.

Sought for comment, the defense disagreed.

“No more even on rebuttal since it is not a matter subject of presentation of defense evidence,” said defense lawyer and spokesperson Tranquil Salvador III.

Salvador insisted that the prosecution could not just link to the dollar deposits of the Chief Justice to the California property bought by Corona’s daughter Maria Charina, a physical therapist in the United States, in 2008.

“I believe so. Besides, there is no certainty that they will be allowed to present evidence on the alleged dollar deposit,” said Salvador.

At the trial, the prosecution has established that Corona was also keeping five dollar accounts with the Philippine Savings Banks (PSBank), but these were shielded from scrutiny by a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by Supreme Court on February 9.

The TRO was sought by both Corona and PSBank, but the Supreme Court decided to grant PSBank’s request.

The Senate subsequently voted to respect the TRO, which then barred the prosecution and senator-judges from eliciting information on five dollar accounts allegedly held by Corona in PSBank and were subject of a subpoena that had been earlier obtained by the prosecution.

Armed with the Supreme Court order, PSBank president Pascual Garcia III has clammed up during his testimony at the trial, refusing to disclose the contents of the dollar accounts because of the strict provisions of the Foreign Currency Deposits Act.

Garcia, however, has released information relating to peso accounts owned by the Chief Justice.

Before resting its case on February 28, the prosecution reserved the right to present evidence on Corona’s dollar deposits in case of a favorable ruling from the high tribunal allowing the opening of the deposits to scrutiny.

To prove his innocence, Corona himself told the media that he would be opening his dollar deposits.

“Whether or not there was a TRO from the Supreme Court, I said I will open it in due time and the due time is next week. I have always said there is no problem with my dollar deposits because I can explain it, ” Corona said in a dzBB interview on March 7.

At the time, Corona went on a media blitz ahead of the turn of the defense to present its evidence, which began March 12.

Trial resumes on May 7.