Prosecutors to pursue Corona's bank accounts

Friday, February 3, 2012

THE House prosecution panel vowed Friday to reveal bank accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona to prove that his savings does not tally with the amount declared in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

In a press conference, prosecution panel spokespersons Romero Frederico "Miro" Quimbo, Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara, and Lorenzo "Erin" Tanada III said they requested the Senate impeachment tribunal to issue a subpoena on PSBank and Bank of the Philippines Island (BPI) officials and bring with them account records of the Chief Justice.

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"We're speaking here of a lot (of bank accounts)," Quimbo said when asked of the number of bank accounts that Corona and his wife, Cristina, have been maintaining.

Impeachment prosecutors earlier said that Corona won P1 million in a PSBank monthly raffle.

Angara said the Chief Justice must have a dollar account, which qualified him to join the raffle.

Quimbo also said that based on Corona's 2009 SALN, he was able to pay an amount of P2 million in liabilities and only had P2.5 million as cash and investments.

"If that’s only money he declared in 2009, we wonder how he was able to pay off liabilities for that year and then at the same time acquired the 14.5-million property," Quimbo said.

Corona was able to purchase the P14.5 Bellagio penthouse unit also in 2009. Three checks -- two amounting to P5 million and one P4.5 million -- were all issued from the same bank account, the prosecutors noted.

The spokespersons stressed that the bank accounts is still in connection with Article 2.2 and 2.3.

"You are required in your SALN to declare all your personal as well as other personal properties," Quimbo said.

Senator-judges have disallowed presentation of evidence and witnesses on Article 2.4 or the prosecution's allegation of Corona's ill-gotten wealth. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)