ANSWERED PRAYERS. Cristina Corona (center), wife of Chief Justice Renato Corona, and daughter Carla (second from right) pose for a photo with Cristina’s previously estranged Basa cousins—Carmen, Ana, Isabel, Francesca and Eric—inside the Senate session hall following their reconciliation during a break in the impeachment trial on Friday. The lone surviving owner of BGEI, Sister Flory, FMM, has told the Inquirer that she’s been praying without ceasing for family unity. SENATE POOL
After treating the public to a press airing of family problems better kept private, the Basa relations feuding with their cousin Cristina Corona dramatically reconciled on Day 42 of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Right inside the Senate impeachment court, they embraced, kissed and wiped each other’s tears as if all the bitterness and recrimination of the past 30 years had not happened.
The dramatic turn of events left the audience at the packed Senate session hall bewildered.
It was the Chief Justice’s wife who apparently made the first move, followed by her daughter, Carla, and son, Francis.
In full view of the public, Cristina Corona approached the children of her late uncle, Jose Basa III, whom the Chief Justice described during his testimony on Tuesday as a “spoiled brat.”
The Chief Justice was at the witness stand when this unexpected twist in the affairs of his wife’s family was unfolding.
The senator-judges missed the family drama as they were holding a caucus at the senators’ lounge, which lasted for about an hour.
Since Tuesday, the feuding Basas and Coronas—who were all seated at the VIP gallery—could be seen exchanging dagger looks at each other.
But when the Chief Justice returned to the stand on Friday, things suddenly changed.
Go-between
The Inquirer learned that it was civic and religious leader Baby Nebrida and former Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez who acted as the go-between, after they heard one of the Basa cousins telling a radio interviewer that they had been wanting to reconcile with the Coronas.
Perez, with columnist Belinda Olivares-Cunanan, has been religiously attending the hearings for the past four months.
According to Perez, she heard over the radio “one of the Basa girls saying that ‘I am praying for the Chief Justice. We are praying for the Coronas.’ And soon after, they were saying that they already wanted to reconcile with the Coronas. So we touched base with the Coronas.”
It was not an easy task, Perez said.
“Of course, they (Basa family members) haven’t talked for a long time. But my emissary, a mutual friend (Nebrida), talked with Betsy [Basa-Tenchavez], aunt of the Basa cousins. We asked Mrs. Corona (to talk with the Basas), but she was a little bit shy. But when she heard that one of the (Basa) girls had said, ‘I want to hug … Cristina,’ she (agreed),” said Perez.
Tears and laughter
Cristina first approached her niece, Ana, who stood up and hugged her tight.
Ana’s sisters, Carmen, Francesca and Isabel, and brother Eric followed suit, engaging Cristina and Carla in small talk.
All eyes were on the family as they huddled together, talking quietly and holding one another’s hands.
Eric appeared to be praying, his arms stretched over Cristina and Carmen, while Cristina talked in a hushed voice to the Basa sisters, who kept wiping away tears. They were all chuckling and crying at the same time.
Before the hearing resumed, the Basas approached the Chief Justice, who was still at the witness stand. The Basas—who earlier debunked the Chief Justice’s testimony as “untrue”—took turns hugging him.
The whole drama ended with the now apparently reconciled family—which until a few days ago was bitterly exchanging insults in their fight over the Basa Guidote Enterprises Inc. and the P34.7 million proceeds from the sale of company property—posing for pictures.
Five of the nine children of Jose Basa III flew in from the United States and Canada last Monday, the day before Corona took the stand.
“Ayos ba? (Everything okay?)” defense counsel Rico Paolo Quicho asked reporters.
“We all want to know the truth—this is the truth. We can clearly see it,” said Quicho.
But the lawyer himself did not want to draw any conclusions from the apparent reconciliation between the Coronas and the Basas.
“Let’s first allow them to freely come together and talk. Let’s first suspend our interpretation of what they’re doing. In my view, this is an outpouring of emotions among (feuding) family members. But in difficult times and challenges, a family becomes united,” said Quicho.
Public perception favors Chief Justice
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said that while the reconciliation of the Coronas and Basas had no bearing on the impeachment case, it could have an effect on public perception of the Chief Justice’s integrity.
“I was glad. I felt that my opening prayer was answered right away,” said Sotto, who delivered the opening prayer at the start of Friday’s trial.
“Yes, it will have an impact on public perception, most probably (in his favor),” he said.
In his opening prayer which set the tone for the hearing, Sotto, a member of Couples for Christ, asked the Holy Spirit to “anoint” the senator-judges and those present at the trial.
“Sana totoo na ‘yan” (let’s hope it’s for real), commented an elderly man as he watched the reconciliation scene and others trained video cameras at Cristina Corona and her cousins.
Members of the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-At-Arms vainly tried to keep the crowd quiet, but the event was just too emotional to be contained.
Members of the impeachment court secretariat watched with their mouths literally gaping at the surreal spectacle of the Basa siblings trooping to the witness stand where the Chief Justice sat.
The Chief Justice calmly turned around when people pointed to the reconciliation scene unfolding behind him.
He gave a weak smile as the Basa siblings approached.
Daughter Carla cried as Cristina introduced her estranged relatives to her husband.
‘Providential’
“Buti naman (That’s good),” Sen. Jinggoy Estrada texted when told of the happy event.
Sen. Gregorio Honasan described the development as a “providential sign.”
“I pray that it’s for real and long term for the good of the country and their respective families and friends,” he said in a text message.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson jokingly asked whether the disputed P34.7 million had been returned.
Said prosecution spokesperson Romero Quimbo: “Any reconciliation within a family is always welcome. I am personally happy for them. But such has no bearing on our case. Our case is dependent on documents that clearly establish his concealment of his assets.”
Just pray
Demetrio Vicente, the Chief Justice’s 70-year-old cousin and witness for the defense, advised his cousin to pray.
“There are people who believe him. He should just pray that they (the senator-judges) will believe him,” Vicente said in a phone interview.
“That’s all that can be done. He doesn’t control the judges,” he said.
Accused by the prosecution of being a mere “caretaker” of the 3,400-square-meter Marikina property that he had bought from Cristina, Vicente took the witness stand in March and testified that he bought the property from Cristina and the latter’s sister, Miriam Roco, in 1990.
He said he paid P1.018 million for the lot and built a house and bonsai garden on it. He admitted having neglected to transfer the title to his name though he had been paying the real property tax for the property for the past 22 years.
He said he trusted the Chief Justice.
“I trust him. He is no trouble. I know that he will not fool me,” Vicente said in Filipino.
He said he has been following the televised trial and sat through Corona’s three-hour testimony on Tuesday.
“I think what he’s saying is the truth. He is not greedy,” said Vicente.
Studying and studying
Even when they were growing up, Corona was never one to flaunt his wealth, he said.
“He just kept on studying and studying. He was very diligent. Back then, when I still had money and bought a Mercedes Benz and other expensive cars, he was just focused on his studies,” Vicente said.
Vicente said he last saw Corona almost three months ago when the magistrate and his lawyers went to his Marikina home to borrow the deed of sale for the property to use as evidence in his defense.
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