Corona daughter’s P18-M lot purchase ‘surprised’ BIR chief

BUREAU of Internal Revenue chief Kim Jacinto Henares was surprised to discover  that Chief Justice Renato Corona’s eldest daughter Ma. Carla Corona-Castillo was able to buy an P18-million property without declaring any source of income.

Henares made the revelation as she continued testifying before the Senate Impeachment Court hearing the Articles of Impeachment against Corona.

“The daughter has minimal income and she’s not capable of buying properties,” Henares  said under questioning by private prosecutor Arthur Lim.

Heneres said that Carla only filed Income Tax Returns twice on 2008 and 2009 declaring a gross income of P8,476 and paid P423.80 in taxes.

However, in 2010, Carla bought a 1,200-square meter property in La Vista in Quezon City from his parents. The amount was stated in the Deed of Sale.

The BIR official said that upon checking, Corona and his wife Cristina had bought the property in 2003 for P11 million.

Defense lead counsel Serafin Cuevas objected to the disclosure of this information. However presiding Justice Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile ordered the prosecution panel to proceed with the presentation of evidence saying the prosecution is “proving that the asset sold to the daughter is still the asset of the respondent.”

Since Corona bought the La Vista property, he started declaring this in his 2003 SALN but only with an assessed value of P450,000 and fair market value of P3 million.

With regard to the Corona couple, Henares told the court that upon checking they failed to look for other documents that will show their other sources of income.

“We checked everywhere, upon diligent search we did not get any ITRs,” Henares added.

The prosecution panel is claiming that Corona has amassed ill-gotten wealth while in the Supreme Court.

His SALN in 2002 declared his worth as P14 million which increased to P22.9 million by 2010 when he was appointed as Chief Justice.

Enrile warning

Enrile yesterday cautioned concerned parties in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona to “refrain” from discussing in public documents submitted to the Impeachment Court which have not yet formally been admitted and declared as evidence against the head of the High Tribunal.

Enrile, acting as presiding officer of the Impeachment Court, made the statement after Senator-Judges Joker Arroyo and Pia Cayetano complained that the spokespersons of the prosecution panel on Wednesday presented to the media copies of the supposed income tax returns of Corona and his wife even though these were not yet offered as evidence against the chief magistrate.

“The presentation of the evidence in this Court of the document is simply to let it be recorded as evidence for the purpose of identification. So I would like to caution the lawyers appearing here to be very careful (in handling documents),” Enrile said. 

“My understanding is that this document (ITRs of the Corona couple) yesterday were marked but not yet admitted in evidence. Now, any document not yet admitted as evidence is not a public document. An ITR is sacrosanct. It is very confidential. Why was this released (to the public)?” Arroyo said.

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Teofisto Guingona III, however, do not see anything wrong with the presentation of Corona’s ITR to the media stressing they were conducting a “public trial.” However, Arroyo maintained that “the rules of secrecy must be followed.”

“It is public trial but order must be maintained or else no trial at all. Trial assumes order, system. Without it (the trial would be) useless. I don’t want to argue with anyone on that so that we will all follow the rules,” Arroyo stressed.

Cayetano supported Arroyo’s view. “With the agreement of senators, I think we can reconcile the views. We simply have to distinguish between the ‘presentation’ or the ‘marking’ of the evidence and the ‘formal offer’ of evidence. When we are just in the marking stage, by all means, this should not be paraded (to the media or the public).