Chief Justice Renato Corona was worth P14.9 million when he joined the Ramos administration in 1992 and was worth about P1 million less when he left the executive branch under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to join the Supreme Court in 2002.
This can be gleaned from two statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) that Corona filed on July 22, 1992, shortly after then President Fidel Ramos appointed him assistant executive secretary for legal affairs, and on April 8, 2002, the day before Arroyo appointed him to the high court.
Closer to the present, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno came in for praise from Malacañang on Friday for making public their SALNs.
“The cause of justice can have no sturdier shield than the integrity of those who are tasked with discharging it. The decision of Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Maria Lourdes Sereno to release the summaries of their (SALNs) upon the request of concerned citizens is commendable to the highest degree,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a news briefing.
Carpio was Corona’s closest rival for the position of Chief Justice when Reynato Puno retired in 2010. Sereno was President Aquino’s first appointee to the high tribunal.
Corona was Arroyo’s presidential adviser and chief of staff before the then President appointed him to the Supreme Court as an associate justice.
The documents, given to the Inquirer by a source privy to the evidence of the House prosecution panel in Corona’s impeachment trial, showed that Corona declared a net worth of P14,968,000 in his SALN after entering the government in 1992.
Ten years later in 2002, he declared a net worth of P13,968,000.
He bought a condo?
The House prosecution panel recently revealed that Corona bought a condominium unit worth more than P14.5 million in 2009. The property is said to be worth between P30 million and P40 million now.
The House prosecutors claimed that the Bellagio property was one of four pieces of high-end real estate that Corona and his wife own.
Documents showing Corona’s ownership of the 303.5-square-meter Bellagio unit may be used as evidence of Corona’s alleged corruption during his impeachment trial set to start at the Senate on Jan. 16.
Corona has been in government since 1992. He was also a member of Arroyo’s staff at the Office of the Vice President during the Estrada administration in the intervening years between the Ramos and Arroyo administrations.
Detailed SALNs
In the SALNs filed in 1992 and 2002 when he was still with the executive branch, Corona declared his residence on No. 95 Xavierville Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
In 1992 he declared pieces of real property worth a total of P9 million. These include a lot in Quezon City with a fair market value then of P5 million; a house, P2 million; and another lot in Marikina, P2 million.
His personal assets that year were worth a total of P6 million. These included an unspecified number of motor vehicles from “various years” worth P1 million; cash and investments, P4 million; and jewelry “accumulated over the years,” P1 million.
Corona’s liabilities in 1992 consisted of an undetailed set of car financing loans worth P300,000.
In his 2002 SALN as presidential adviser and chief of staff, Corona declared owning real property worth P10 million.
He still declared the Quezon City properties worth P5 million and P2 million. Instead of a Marikina lot, Corona declared one in Quezon City worth P3 million.
In the same year, Corona declared personal assets worth a total of P4.8 million. These included an unspecified number of cars from various years’ worth P1 million; cash and investments, P2.7 million and jewelry, P1 million.
Corona declared various loans as his liabilities worth a total of P1 million that year.
The 1992 SALN appears to have been subscribed and sworn to before a certain Vicente Galang, with the rank of director IV, on Aug. 4, 1992.
The 2002 SALN appears to have been notarized by lawyer Susana Vargas, deputy executive secretary for finance and administration in the executive branch.
Relatives in gov’t
In 1992, Corona declared his other relatives in government as brother Ruben, a manager at the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC); brother Arturo, a director at the Philippine National Oil Co.; first cousin Benedicto Corona, a lieutenant colonel with the Philippine Marines; and cousin Purita Inumerable, an employee at the municipal government of Tanauan, Batangas province.
He declared as a business interest the corporation, Basa-Guidote Enterprises, owned by the family of his wife, Cristina.
In 2002, he only declared as relatives in government his brother Ruben, vice president at the NHMFC, and cousin, Benedicto, a Marine colonel.
There was no longer a business interest declared.
Lacierda, who challenged Corona to disclose his SALN supposedly to show that he could afford to pay for a luxury condominium unit in Taguig City, called on other members of the judiciary to disclose their SALNs as well.
“A judge with nothing to hide is a judge with nothing to fear. Officials who serve the people with fidelity have everything to gain, and nothing to lose, from embracing transparency and accountability,” he said.
“While there are those who prefer to hide, and who shun our people, the executive department believes that demonstrating faith in the Filipino is the surest and best way to obtain, and retain, public confidence,” Lacierda said.
“We call on the judiciary to join the legislature and the executive in making the disclosure of SALNs a routine reality … because the executive and the legislature have already been issuing their SALNs in accordance with the Saguisag Law so perhaps it’s about time the judiciary also comes up with the SALN,” he said.
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