FAMILY FEUD The Basa family— Carmen, Ana, Isabel, Francesca and Eric— occupy the VIP seats in the gallery. They were a few seats away from the Corona family. RICHARD A. REYES
Chief Justice Renato Corona spoke of his family’s preference to keep its financial assets and invest them in “foreign exchange” when he finally took the witness stand at his impeachment trial.
But in justifying this option before senator-judges and the public at large, the Chief Justice ended up shoveling up the dirt that had been lingering in the family of his wife Cristina for years on national television.
Corona said the experience of the Basa family, chronicled in a series of Philippine Daily Inquirer reports side by side with the impeachment proceedings, presented a key lesson not to invest in properties, which would later be the subject of inheritance dispute.
“It’s sad that I have to tell the story before the public but perhaps, it’s about time for the people to know what really happened in this family, why the conflict is so grave, the problem so deep,” he said in Filipino as part of a lengthy opening statement that ended up as his testimony.
“The problem with their family is they’re very rich, but their assets were tied up to properties,” he added, noting that inheritance usually caused jealousy and infighting among children.
5 Basas
Five members of the Basa family—cousins of Cristina Corona—flew all the way from the United States and Canada to attend the Chief Justice’s historic appearance at the trial.
The Basas tried to find seats at the session hall’s gallery reserved for the public, but were quickly ushered into the VIP gallery by members of the Senate protocol. Carmen, Ana, Isabel, Francesca and Eric listened as Corona was telling his version of the Basa story.
Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI), a corporation owned by Cristina’s family, was repeatedly mentioned at the impeachment trial, partly in connection with the sale of its Sampaloc property to the Manila city government for P34.7 million in 2001.
In previous hearings, the defense used the amount to justify the presence of peso deposits under the name of the Corona couple, but which were not declared in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs).
In one SALN though, Corona declared a cash advance from BGEI, which was used to purchase a property. The amount was eventually paid as reflected in a subsequent SALN.
More recently, the Coronas came under scrutiny after the impeachment court was told during a testimony how their daughter Carla became the majority owner of BGEI.
At fault
In 2002, Carla Corona-Castillo purchased at an auction BGEI shares owned by Cristina’s late uncle Jose Maria Basa III and his wife Raymunda for only P28,000. The court had ordered the auction to satisfy the P500,000 in damages awarded to Cristina after she won a libel case against the Basas.
But contrary to what he said was a negative picture allegedly painted in media reports about his wife, Corona said Jose Basa was the one at fault.
“Jose Maria Basa was not the one oppressed. He was the one who oppressed my mother-in-law and the family of my mother-in-law,” the Chief Justice said in Filipino. “We were insulted nonstop in one newspaper on why my wife was allegedly so greedy, cunning, shameless, and with many different adjectives used against her—no, they’re not true.”
With Basa’s children watching from the gallery, Corona said the family feud began long ago when Jose managed to claim sole ownership of a 2-hectare property in Libis, Quezon City, leaving out sister Asuncion Basa-Roco, Cristina’s mother.
Corona said the property was now valued “conservatively” at P2.5 billion.
“Before, the title of the Basa compound was under the name of Jose Maria Basa III and my mother-in-law Asuncion Basa-Roco,” he told the court. “We couldn’t tell and no one could say how he managed to have a title issued to the Basa compound [in Libis] with my mother-in-law’s name no longer on it.”
Corona said the purported trickery triggered a “bitter feud” within the family, which explains the pending court cases between warring relatives. “My mother-in-law’s share just went missing,” he said.
‘Spoiled brat, jobless’
Corona went on to profusely apologize for having to discuss the character of the late Jose Basa.
“Mr. Basa—I’m sorry to say this and again, I’m sorry and I really apologize I have to say it now, but perhaps the people need to finally know now—he didn’t have any job,” he said, visibly unsettling the Basa children in the audience.
“All his life, he was a spoiled brat, a rich kid. When he needed anything, he would run to mama, to Lola Charing. If the old woman had no money to give, he would sell properties left and right,” he added, noting that Jose had nine children who were all studying even if he was jobless.
By this time, Ana Basa was seen wiping away tears.
The lone property left to Asuncion Basa-Roco was a property in Sampaloc, Manila, which was eventually purchased by the local government to accommodate vendors from a previous public market, said Corona.
“Mr. Basa wanted to sell even that property,” the Chief Justice said. “But my mother-in-law said, ‘Enough is enough. You already got my share in Libis, but I kept quiet. You already got so many properties from mama and I said nothing. But you still want to get this one remaining property so you could sell it?’”
Daughter’s statement
Corona also sought to set the record straight on how Carla managed to purchase BGEI shares for only P28,000 during an auction where she was the lone bidder. Saying he had no personal knowledge of the purchase, he read a written statement prepared by his daughter.
In the statement, Carla said she had been willing to make a maximum bid of only P50,000 considering the “risk of buying into a very messy corporation.” She acknowledged that BGEI had just sold a property for P34.7 million, but said “the ownership of the shares is being disputed and is still under litigation.”
Carla said Jose Basa was claiming ownership of 4,860 shares, apparently because “he claimed to have bought and paid off the shares of other stockholders, namely Mario Basa, the late Sister Concepcion, and Sister Flory Basa.”
Only 220 shares
In reality, the daughter said the shares up for purchase were only 220 shares representing the combined shares of Jose Basa and his wife. At P100 per share, they were worth P22,000.
“I cannot stress enough that there was a great risk in acquiring them, so I cannot say I didn’t pay enough. No one else wanted to sink in their money in an uncertain corporation with so much infighting among the heirs,” Carla said in the letter.
The daughter said the Basa couple could have redeemed the shares within a year, given the low bid price.
“They would only have to pay me back my bid price of P28,000. Thereafter, they could regain ownership of the shares, but they did not,” Corona said, quoting his daughter.
While the Chief Justice was accusing Jose’s family of fleeing to “escape accountability” for “destroying Mommy’s reputation” (referring to the mother of Cristina), the Basas, who were seated just behind the witness stand, were smirking, shaking their heads in disbelief.
On several occasions, they were seen stealing glances at Cristina, Carla and Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, who all accompanied the Chief Justice to the trial. The Basas and Coronas were a few seats away from each other.
Sobbing
After the trial was adjourned, Carmen issued brief remarks to the media. “We’re very saddened with the development that the name of our good father is being dragged into these proceedings,” she said, sobbing.
“He’s (Jose) not here to defend himself. What he said was cruel, untrue … and shows his true character. As Chief Justice, he should know better.
“At this point, we’re not going to go down to his level, and we’re not going to justify his false statements,” Carmen said.
The Basa sisters refused to take questions from reporters. “We’ll make more statements after we hear what happens tomorrow,” Carmen said.