By LALA ORDENES and ARTHA KIRA PAREDES
(Written by VERA Files for the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Talk of the Town)
ALL public officers and employees must submit a declaration under oath of their respective statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) on April 30. In accomplishing the SALN, they could learn a lesson or two from arguably the most scrutinized SALN in Philippine history: that of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Corona is on trial in the Senate for, among others, betrayal of public trust arising from his failure to disclose to the public his SALN. Article 11, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution provides that “a public officer or employee shall, upon assumption of office and as often thereafter as may be required by law, submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities and net worth.”
Clerk of court
The Chief Justice’s SALNs were finally turned over by Supreme Court clerk of court Enriqueta Vidal to the Senate on Jan. 18, the third day of the trial, on orders of senator-judges. That same day, as the trial was ongoing, the high tribunal authorized the release of Corona’s SALNs.
As the documents submitted to the Senate showed, the Chief Justice had been religiously filing the declarations since he was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2002. He also declared his net worth in the years he was in the executive branch, starting out as President Fidel Ramos’ executive secretary in 1992 and bowing out as Arroyo’s chief of staff in 2002.
Prosecutors from the House of Representatives, however, contended that “failure to disclose” is not merely the failure to file the SALN but submitting incomplete, inaccurate and grossly undervalued entries. Corona, according to the impeachment complaint, committed culpable violation of the Constitution when he excluded some of his properties from his SALN, considered a violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Condos, land
Based on Corona’s SALNs and land records submitted by registers of deeds during the trial, Corona apparently has some explaining to do over the following properties: A 631.6-sq m lot in Quezon City he bought in 1995 which was never declared in all his SALNs; a Marikina property—seven parcels of land covered by seven transfer certificates of title—he declared only in his 1992 SALN even when this still belongs to him; a 113.02-sq m condominium in Bonifacio Ridge in Taguig, acquired in 2004, that was not declared until 2010; a 62.7-sq m condo acquired by installment in 1997 but declared only in 2003; and a condominium unit in The Columns in Makati that was not reflected in his 2003-2009 SALN and was belatedly declared in his 2010 filing.
The prosecution is also out to prove that the chief magistrate intentionally left out various bank deposits in his SALNs. The Senate on Monday approved the prosecution’s requests to subpoena certain bank records and bank officials. >>READ MORE
