IT was reported that the wife of impeached Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato C. Corona, Cristina, sold a property to the government of the City of Manila in 2001 for P34.7 million under expropriation which Manila used to relocate stall holders of the Sampaloc Market displaced by the construction of the Metro Rail Transit.

The prosecution alleged that Corona, chief of staff of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, influenced this transaction.

Earlier, impeachment trial presiding officer Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile rebuked and lectured the 11th prosecution witness, Security and Exchange Commission Director Benito Cataran, for failure to give concrete answer during the proper trial in the Senate.

Enrile got irked when he asked what should the SEC do to a corporation with delinquent account and Cataran failed to give reply.

Enrile was referring to the corporation owned by the family of Corona’s wife where he supposedly drew the P11-million cash advance as shown in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) and was put under scrutiny during the resumption of his impeachment trial.

Testifying before the Senate Impeachment Court, Cataran revealed that Basa-Guidote Entrprises Inc. (BGEI) did not file its general information sheet from 1991 to 1997 as well as its financial statements from 2000 to 2010.

He said that the SEC revoked BGEI’s business license the same time Corona borrowed the money from the corporation.

Cataran explained, “When the corporation failed to file a petition to lift revocation order issued within one year, the revocation order is put into effect, the company will cease to exist.”

The witness also admitted that as far as SEC is concerned, he could not say if the corporation is still in operation since they have not been submitting reports.

It was established that Cristina Corona is neither one of the stockholders nor directors of this corporation. She was even sued for estate by her relatives after allegedly collecting lease payments from about eight tenants on behalf of the corporation. Cristina, in turn, sued her aunts and uncles for libber, including one of her sisters.

“We found out that since 1991, the corporation has not been submitting any report…From 1991 up to 1997,” Cataran said, responding to direct examination of prosecutor and Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali.

The non-filing of the general information sheet “in the period of more than at least six years -- from 1997 up to 2002 -- prompted the revocation of the certificate of registration in April, 2003, said Cataran.

The year of the revocation of the license, 2003, was the same year that the Chief Justice filed in his SALN an P11-million cash advance from the corporation.