Prosecution insists Corona owned 4 properties in Taguig, QC

MANILA, Philippines – The prosecution insisted that Chief Justice Renato Corona owned four properties in Taguig and Quezon City registered in the names of his children and son-in-law.

Private prosecutor Wilson Gines identified the four as P9 million McKinley Hill property in Taguig and the three properties in Quezon City– one in La Vista worth P18 million, a P15 million property in Cubao, and the P10.5 million property in Kalayaan.

Gines said the Taguig property was registered in the name of Corona’s daughter, Maria Charina while the La Vista property was in the name of another daughter, Maria Carla-Castillo.

The Cubao and Kalayaan properties belonged to Constantino Castillo III, husband of Maria Carla or son-in-law of the Chief of Justice.

The defense team though lawyer Noel Lazaro maintained, however that Corona did not own the four properties, pointing out that they were registered in the names of other people.

Lazaro said the four belonged to the 12 properties they excluded from the list of 45 properties that the administrator of Land Registration Authority, Eulalio Diaz III, provided to the prosecution.

The defense lawyer also corrected the price of the McKinley property, saying that based on the deed of absolute sale, the amount was P6, 196,500, and not P9 million as stated by the prosecution team.

Aside from the 12 titles, the defense also excluded another 17 that were cancelled.

But the prosecution team expressed reservation to one of the 17 cancelled titles – the Ayala Heights property, saying the title was only cancelled in 2010.

Gines said the property was still “material” for the years 2002 to 2009.