‘Coronas’ income, assets don’t match’
By Helen Flores
The Philippine Star
during the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato
Corona at the Senate yesterday.
MANILA, Philippines – The declared income of Chief Justice Renato Corona and his wife Cristina did not match records of their asset acquisitions.
This was the gist of the testimony yesterday of Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares before the Senate impeachment court.
After ordering the issue of ill-gotten wealth stricken off the impeachment complaint against Corona, the Senate impeachment court allowed Henares to take the witness stand.
Henares’ testimony centered on the Corona couple’s income records and the real estate purchases.
She revealed that Corona never filed income tax returns from 2002 to 2010. She stressed that Corona was not required to file ITRs based on Section 51 of the National Internal Revenue Code, which provides that individuals who have only one source of income do not have to file an ITR.
In lieu of the ITR, the employer – in Corona’s case the Supreme Court (SC) – submits to the BIR a so-called alpha list containing the income and salaries received, tax withheld and remittance made to the BIR of all employees, including the justices of the court.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the prosecution must submit the alpha list as evidence but private prosecutor Arthur Lim said this was not possible because it contains confidential information, specifically, the income of the other justices.
Upon questioning from Sen. Ralph Recto, Henares managed to disclose only the income of Corona from 2002 to 2010 based on his withholding tax in the alpha list.
Henares noted that from 2002 to 2005, there was no record of an alpha list filed by the SC. She clarified that this does not mean that Corona did not pay his taxes for those years. It was only from 2006 to 2010 that alpha lists were filed by the SC.
According to Henares, Corona’s gross compensations for those years were as follows: 2006 – P465,000; 2007 – P488,156.57; 2008 – P604,388.46; 2009 – P621,528.62; and 2010 – P657,755.57.
In her testimony, Henares also said the wife of Corona was able to acquire an P11-million property in the exclusive La Vista subdivision in Quezon City in 2003 despite her having no reported source of income. Henares said Corona’s wife Cristina registered with the bureau as a one-time taxpayer for the property transaction on Sept. 9, 2003.
“She was not registered as taxpayer. And therefore, for all legal purposes as far as BIR is concerned, she has not earned any income prior to Sept. 9, 2003,” Henares said.
Henares said she issued and signed the certificate authorizing registration (CAR) for the La Vista property on Sept. 9, 2003.
The CAR is a certification issued by the BIR that the transfer and conveyance of the property was reported and the taxes due have been fully paid.
Henares said a CAR was also issued on Oct. 28, 2004 for the property acquired by Corona’s wife in The Columns, Ayala Avenue, Makati City worth P3,588, 931. Cristina bought another condominium in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City worth P9,159,940 on Nov. 16, 2008. The couple also acquired a unit at the Bellagio 1, Taguig worth P14.5 million on Dec. 17, 2009.
Corona and his wife likewise bought a property at One Burgundy Plaza on Katipunan Avenue worth P2,508,000 on Dec. 8, 2003.
Henares also disclosed that Corona’s wife sold a lot at La Vista (1,200 square meters) to her daughter Ma. Carla Castillo worth P18 million on Oct. 22, 2010.
She also sold a lot in Pansol, Diliman, Quezon City to a certain Amelia Rivera worth P8 million on March 12, 2010.
On the other hand, except for her one-time tax registration in 2003, Corona’s wife also did not file income tax returns, according to Henares.
Cristina, however, is included in the alpha list submitted by John Hay Management Corp., where she served as chair in 2007 and president from 2008 to 2010.
Henares said Cristina’s gross earnings were P623,157.30 in 2007, P1.24 million in 2008, P1.106 million in 2009, and P469,986 in 2010. She also earned director fees amounting to P400,000 in 2007, P220,000 in 2008, P318,000 in 2009 and P240,000 in 2010.
Henares admitted that they only learned of the properties owned by the Coronas after the filing of the impeachment complaint.
Enrile said he was surprised that the BIR did not take any action on Corona’s non-filing of ITRs.
“We only found out about this because of the impeachment proceedings, to be specific we only found about these things last Friday,” she said.
“Madam Commissioner, the certificates issued by your office to authorize the registration of properties were issued on prior year, isn’t that a matter of record in your office? And was that supposedly enough for you to inquire into the source of money that was used by this taxpayer to pay for the land and why did you not exercise your power as commissioner to assess?” Enrile asked Henares.
Henares said the transactions happened in 2003 when she was not yet commissioner of the BIR.
“That’s the responsibility of the BIR and I’m quite surprised why was it that no action was taken by the agency if this is an income earned and for which no tax was paid,” he said. Henares said the BIR will conduct further investigation into the matter. The BIR chief is expected to continue her testimony today.
Prosecution spokesman Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo, meanwhile, insisted Corona lied in his SALN when he declared that he bought his Bellagio property for only over P6 million when he had actually bought it for P14.8 million.
“Even as he undervalued his properties, there is still a big disparity in his income and assets acquired. Even under the forfeiture law, if your income is disproportionate to your assets, that is considered ill-gotten wealth,” Quimbo said. “His wife, Cristina, has no income declaration in BIR, but she bought a property worth P11 million (which) she declared in 2007. There is a discrepancy,” Quimbo said in reaction to Henares’ testimony.
Bank records sought
Earlier, House impeachment prosecutors asked the Senate impeachment court to subpoena the records of the accounts of Corona and his wife in four banks.
In a four-page request filed by lead prosecutor Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., the prosecution panel asked that Bank of the Philippine Islands, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Philippine National Bank, and state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines also send officers to testify on the Coronas’ bank records.
Tupas said Republic Act 1405 or the Bank Secrecy Law allows the disclosure of bank records in an impeachment case. He said among the documents they want the banks to produce are the forms the Corona couple filled out when they opened their accounts as well as monthly statements of transactions and balances.
He said the bank records are material and relevant to determining whether the Coronas could have afforded the luxurious condo units and other assets that they have acquired.
The prosecution panel is also seeking records on a P11-million “cash advance” that Corona declared in his SALN for 2003. It has asked the Senate impeachment court to subpoena the records of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI), a corporation owned by the family of Corona’s wife Cristina.
In his 2003 SALN, the Chief Justice declared that he took out an P11-million cash advance from this corporation.
The SEC documents prosecutors want to examine include BGEI’s financial statements, where Corona’s debt and his payments presumably would be reflected.
Corona declared his liability in his SALN up to 2009, when it went down to only P3 million. It disappeared in his 2010 SALN after he apparently paid off his creditor.
A research conducted by investigative journalist and blogger Raissa Robles showed that based on SEC records, BGEI was dissolved in 2003 and was officially nonexistent in 2007, since dissolved companies are given some time to wind down their affairs. How could the Chief Justice have owed and paid a legally inexistent corporation? Robles asked.
The television network ABS-CBN interviewed Randy Basa, an aunt of Corona’s wife, who said they became aware of the supposed cash advance to the Chief Justice only from news reports.
“There was no meeting held nor any authorization for the cash advance. My husband was one of the original stockholders of the corporation. I think we deserve some answers,” she was quoted as saying.
Randy Basa is the widow of Jose Basa III, a brother of Mrs. Corona’s mother Monina Basa-Roco.
She said she wants to know who authorized Corona’s wife to lend BGEI money to the Chief Justice because the corporation was dissolved in 2003 and most of its board members are already dead. Earlier, prosecutors exposed what they claimed were “lies” in the Chief Justice’s declarations in his SALN.
Prosecution panel spokesman Quimbo said records of the Land Registration Authority (LRA) on the properties of Corona and members of his family do not tally with Corona’s assets as declared in his SALN.
He said the Chief Justice did not declare some properties, while others were declared with understated values.
He said Corona did not declare the luxurious condominium units he and his wife acquired in Bonifacio Global City in 2005 and 2009 in his SALN for those years.
“He declared them only in his SALN for 2010, which was filed in April 2011, when he was already feeling the heat after the House impeached then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. It was almost an afterthought,” he stressed.
No bank records, please
But with the impeachment court ruling against the inclusion of the ill-gotten wealth issue, defense spokespersons Tranquil Salvador III and Karen Jimeno said Corona’s and his family’s bank records should not be included as evidence in the deliberation on Article 2 of the impeachment complaint.
Citing rules of evidence, Jimeno said Commissioner Henares cannot testify on the veracity of Corona’s income tax returns and bank records since the documents were merely submitted to her office.
“How will she know if what was written in the ITR were true and accurate? She doesn’t investigate what’s written on it,” Jimeno said in a press briefing during a break in the trial. Enrile ruled that Article 2.4 pertaining to Corona’s alleged illegal wealth should not be tackled in the hearing. Article 2.4. states that “respondent is likewise suspected and accused of having accumulated ill-gotten wealth, acquiring assets of high values and keeping bank accounts with huge deposits.”
Enrile also stressed that the ITRs of Corona’s family members may be presented only if the prosecution can establish their relevance to the impeachment hearing. – With Christina Mendez, Helen Flores, Jess Diaz, Jose Rodel Clapano
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