Corona charged with perjury at Sandiganbayan

Former Chief Justice Renato Corona: Eight counts of perjury and eight counts of violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. FILE PHOTO/SENATE POOL

MANILA, Philippines—Former Chief Justice Renato Corona was formally charged Tuesday with eight counts of perjury and another eight counts of violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees for his alleged undeclared assets before the Sandiganbayan.

This after the Office of the Ombudsman recently denied his motion for reconsideration in the forfeiture case.

The Ombudsman indicted Corona for allegedly deliberately lying on his true net worth by not declaring properties and several bank accounts as well as undervaluing a number of real estate properties that he declared.

In indicting Corona, the Ombudsman cited the discrepancies in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) from 2004 to 2011.

As a public official, he is required by law to make a full disclosure of his net worth in his yearly SALNs.

During the investigation, the Ombudsman Special Panel of Investigators was able to establish that from 2001 to 2011, the spouses Corona earned a total of P30.4 million, of which P27.1 million was earned by Corona as an official at the Office of the President, a Supreme Court justice, member of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) and member of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET).

On the other hand, his wife, Cristina, earned P3.2 million for 2007-2010, based on the Alpha List submitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) by the John Hay Development Corp. (JHDC) where she was employed.

The resolution stated that from 2002 to 2010, Corona’s cash deposits ballooned from P1.34 million to P137.9 million.

By 2010, the cumulative discrepancy between his SALN declaration and his actual cash deposits had amounted to P134.4 million.

The resolution also cited records of the Land Registration Authority (LRA) on several properties owned by the Corona spouses in Quezon City, Makati City and Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City, which were found to be significantly undervalued by P17.3 million.