Corona urged to testify

With the prosecution resting its case, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Wednesday said Chief Justice Renato Corona’s best defense was to take the witness stand and personally rebut charges he fudged his asset declarations and showed bias in favor of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Before adjourning Day 25 of the trial, which will resume on March 12 for the defense presentation, the court gave the prosecution until Friday to submit a formal offer of documentary evidence and Corona’s lawyers five days to respond.

Enrile warned prosecutors against claiming that they had presented overwhelming evidence to convict Corona.

“You are putting this court in a very serious predicament because you already make pronouncements about the weight and the quantum of the evidence that you have presented for your side,” Enrile said.

“Please do not make sweeping statements outside that may befuddle or confuse the people or convince them that you’ve won already,” he said. “There’s no winner yet. Don’t be too sure.

The tribunal’s presiding officer agreed that it would be in Corona’s “best interest” to take the witness stand and testify, particularly on Articles 2 and 7 of the impeachment complaint.

“That’s my view,” Enrile said in Filipino in an ambush interview. “To me, he needs to explain only on two things, Article 2 and Article 7.”

Article 2 refers to Corona’s alleged failure to publicly disclose his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). In the course of the trial, the prosecution noted alleged discrepancies between entries in his SALN and the actual value of his properties and peso bank accounts.

Article 7 alleges that Corona had favored Arroyo, now a Pampanga congresswoman, through the Supreme Court’s issuance of a Nov. 15, 2011, temporary restraining order (TRO) allowing her to seek medical treatment abroad while she was facing charges of electoral sabotage.

Enrile offered a theory on why the prosecution announced on Tuesday to drop five of its eight articles of impeachment for alleged betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.

“They know that if they pursued (the rest of the articles), they could not secure the required votes to remove the respondent using those five articles that they removed … They didn’t want to waste their effort on these anymore,” he said in Filipino in a radio interview.

Prosecutors need to secure the vote of at least 16 senators in at least one article of impeachment to convict Corona.

“Psychologically, many interpretations could be drawn (from the prosecution move) because you make an allegation and then you withdraw it. That means that you have no evidence to prove it,” Enrile said in an ambush interview.

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Row over testimony of Supreme Court justice looms

Will Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s testimony end up with Supreme Court justices washing their dirty linen in public?

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Sunday cautioned against the prosecution’s insistence to have Sereno appear as its witness in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“Even if she’s willing to testify alone, it would be a slippery slope. It would open the door for other Supreme Court justices appearing in an impeachment trial over one pretext or another,” Santiago told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.

“When the time comes for the defense to present its case, what would prevent them from inviting other justices who, as you say, were critical of Justice Sereno’s dissenting opinion? The prosecution can’t claim this (privilege) alone.”

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said he would give a “word of caution” to fellow senator-judges when the caucus took up the matter at 11 a.m. today.

“There might be a conflict within the Supreme Court and we might only worsen it,” Sotto said in Filipino in a separate interview.

Prosecutors want Sereno, an appointee of President Benigno Aquino III, to testify on her dissenting opinion on the effectivity of the high tribunal’s Nov. 15, 2011, temporary restraining order (TRO).

Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares on Sunday said he would file a motion for reconsideration of a February 14 resolution issued by the high tribunal that the court could “not waive privileges attendant to the proposed testimony” of its officials and employees in Corona’s impeachment trial “on matters covered by privilege and confidentiality.”

“It is absurd,” Colmenares said. “This practically means that anyone, from Chief Justice to Supreme Court drivers cannot testify.”

He said the prosecution would press the Senate to subpoena court officials, otherwise it would weaken its power to try impeachment cases.

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Panagbenga is symbol of rise of Baguio, says Tourism chief

BAGUIO CITY—The parade of floral floats in the 17th Panagbenga (Baguio Flower Festival) impressed Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. so much that he wanted to encourage everyone to plant flowers.

“Panagbenga is the symbol of the rise of Baguio,” Jimenez said, enabling the summer capital to aspire for the title of Asia’s flower capital.

“We should encourage people to plant more flowers not only during [the months leading to the celebration of] Panagbenga but also [throughout the year, so that] when tourists come [to] Baguio, they would see flowers blooming everywhere,” he said on Sunday on the sidelines of the parade.

Although the festival has promoted flowers since its establishment in 1995, the blooms are actually grown and sold by farmers in neighboring La Trinidad, Benguet.

The festival was designed in 1995 by John Hay Poro Point Development Corp. (JPDC, now John Hay Management Corp., or JHMC) to draw back tourists to the city, which had to rebuild following the 1990 Luzon earthquake, a company statement said.

JHMC credits lawyer Damaso Bangaoet Jr., JPDC vice president, for conceptualizing the festival. The first festival was staged in February 1996.

Jimenez said the flower festival was one of the many Philippine festivals which the government has been marketing to the international market. He said the government expected to draw to the country this year up to 4.2 million foreign tourists.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) seeks to attract 10 million tourists by 2016, the tourism chief said.

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Enrile won’t hear PAL exec’s testimony

An incensed Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday rejected a prosecution witness called to testify that Chief Justice Renato Corona and his wife allegedly enjoyed special treatment from Philippine Airlines (PAL) while a case involving the company was pending in the Supreme Court.

On Day 21 of Corona’s trial, Enrile noted that Enrique Javier, PAL vice president for sales, was “incompetent” in proving that Corona committed betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution under Article 3 of the impeachment complaint because he had a “platinum card” that allowed him “special benefits” from the airline.

Bribery would have been the charge, but this was not included in Article 3, Enrile pointed out, warning that the prosecution would then have to prove that this is a high crime and an impeachable offense.

The prosecution also would have to go back to the House of Representatives to amend the impeachment complaint, said Enrile, presiding officer of the Senate tribunal.

Article 3 accuses Corona of “failing to meet stringent standards under Article 8, Section 7, Paragraph 3 of the Constitution that provides that ‘a member of the judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence.’”

Enrile said the instances indicated in Article 3 of the impeachment complaint did not include Corona’s alleged abuse of PAL flight privileges.

The prosecution only accused Corona of “allowing” the Supreme Court to act on “mere letters” filed by PAL lawyer Estelito Mendoza which caused the issuance of a “flip-flopping decision” in the “final and executory case” involving the company’s entanglement with the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (Fasap).

Article 3 also charges Corona with creating excessive entanglement with then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through her appointment of his wife, Cristina, to Camp John Hay Development Corp. and discussing with Lauro Vizconde the pending murder case filed against Hubert Webb then pending before the tribunal.

Enrile said Javier’s testimony was not relevant to any of the three charges and advised the prosecution that the impeachment court would not “allow the expansion” of Article 3 “unless you amend it.”

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Gov’t warned on bank records leak: Palace blackmailing critics

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday warned about the larger implications of the claim that the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) or the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) could have leaked Chief Justice Renato Corona’s bank records.

Enrile agreed with Senator Joker Arroyo who expressed alarm at the impeachment trial on Monday over the possibility of Malacañang using the AMLC to blackmail its enemies.

“Yes, because the (AMLC) is not supposed to examine any account without going to court,” Enrile said in Filipino, noting that the bill seeking to amend  the Anti-Money Laundering Law “will be examined very thoroughly.”

Enrile added: “If that’s true, then they’re not respecting the law anymore. They’re not following the law, which they’re supposed to obey and implement. The executive department is the implementing body.”

The AMLC, tasked with investigating money laundering offenses, is composed of the BSP governor as chair, and the insurance commissioner and the Securities and Exchange Commission chair as members.

The BSP on Monday said its examiners did not access any records of the deposit accounts of Corona.

The AMLC on Tuesday said it could not have been the one that leaked his signature cards or his other deposit account records because it had not received copies of or any documents related to the deposit accounts of Corona.

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‘Bourne’ star urges Oscar winner to visit PH

Seems “The Bourne Legacy” has won at least one famous tourist for the Philippines, long before the movie debuts onscreen.

If plans push through, the new visitor is a hunky Oscar winner. A “Bourne” Actor convinced Oscar Hunk to visit the country—specifically, its famous beaches. OH is expected to fly in this week and visit a posh resort outside of Metro Manila accompanied by another “Bourne” Star.

No need to be suspicious. BS’ partner has just arrived and will join the other two.

More pliant hunk

No wonder Controversial Celeb is not as hurt as everyone thought about Young Lover’s indiscretions.

Turns out, while YL was carrying on with Perky Mestiza, CC was seeing Younger Hunk! Yup, playboy YL is yesterday’s news.

YH is fresh and more flexible, being a new age fitness freak. Moreover, CC and YH reportedly went on a holiday recently.

PAULEEN Luna says she’s not pregnant.

But wait, wasn’t YH once involved with Imported Anchor?

Shrill hunk

Naïve Production Assistant barged into the dressing room shared by Hunky Star with Handsome Actor.

PA saw HS  in an unguarded moment—screaming, swooning, chattering excitedly on the phone with a presumably gay friend.

Noticing that PA was stunned speechless, HA casually remarked: “Don’t mind him. He’s really that shrill in person.”

Hidden desire

They’ve been competitors for a long time; who knew they could’ve been sweethearts, too?

Senior Actress once sat beside Beautiful Rival on a 10-hour flight. Though pitted against each other in the biz, they were friends in real life, so BR didn’t mind traveling with SA.

CRISTINE Reyes: No plans of marrying soon (photo: cristinereyesphotogallery.blogspot.com)

While BR was sleeping soundly, however, SA feasted on the sight of her seatmate’s snow-white neck and … it was quite a ravishing view. Yup, SA swings both ways.

Leftovers

Colorful Celeb often brags about the fact that Greying Husband was previously involved with Screen Goddess and other society girls.

“My rivals were rich and famous,” CC quips.

SG’s supporters have another take on that. “CC was content with leftovers … second-hand items.” Ouch.

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Arroyo father’s name to be dropped from Pampanga airport

The name of the country’s ninth president would be dropped from the airport in this economic zone and would be used instead in a soon-to-rise terminal for passengers served by international and domestic budget airlines, the head of the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said.

In dropping the name of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s father, the airport would revert to its original name—Clark International Airport (CIA)—thus needing no executive order, congressional fiat or resolution from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority, said Victor Jose Luciano, CIAC president and chief executive officer. He said the name comes with a new corporate logo.

“We will project Clark as Clark, including its history,” Luciano said.

A survey showed that domestic and international aviation players know the airport more to be Clark than DMIA, Luciano said.

CIA, as a name, first appeared in Executive Order No. 192 issued by former President Fidel Ramos on July 27, 1994, documents showed. Through it, Ramos authorized the creation of CIAC to operate and manage the Clark Aviation Complex (CAC).

EO 174, also by Ramos, earlier designated this free port’s forerunner, the Clark Special Economic Zone, as the “future site of a premier Philippine International Airport.”

Covering 2,500 hectares, the CAC used to be the central facility in the Clark Air Base of the United States Air Force until 1991 when the Senate ordered all US military bases in the Philippines closed and American troops pulled out.

Clark Air Base was named in honor of Major Harold Clark of the US Army Signal Corps who died in a seaplane crash in Panama Canal in 1919. In honor of this aviation pioneer, the American government changed the name of Fort Stotsenberg into Clark.

The bases conversion master plan, also known as the Abueva Commission report, identified the CAC as the leading resource that would transform Clark for economic uses.

Through resolutions by local officials in 2003, Arroyo renamed the CIA after her father, who died in 1997.

But name change or none, it turned out that the Clark airport, whether in the US military’s time or under the Philippine government’s jurisdiction, is known among pilots by its three-letter code: CRK.

“We made a survey among pilots and other players in the aviation industry. The Clark International Airport or Diosdado Macapagal International Airport went by three letters and these are CRK,” Luciano said.

The code of the International Air Transport Association for Clark is also CRK.

Luciano saw nothing political in the name change.

He said CIA would be a very busy airport this year as Airphil Express and AirAsia are flying to local and international destinations starting March 29.

Passengers are expected to reach 1.7 million in 2012, he said.

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Senators to tackle contempt issue, Supreme Court records in caucus

The plate of the senator-judges will be full on Day 20 of the impeachment trial as they tackle three crucial issues, including the possibility of citing Chief Justice Renato Corona’s lawyers for contempt for claiming that Malacañang was trying to bribe senators.

The matter will be the subject of their caucus at 11 a.m. Monday after defense counsels submitted a 12-page explanation wherein they also “humbly apologize … for any misunderstanding or lack of clarity in their intentions and words.”

At the resumption of the trial at 2 p.m., the senators will grill Quezon City Representative Jorge “Bolet” Banal for approaching a bank manager on January 31 to verify apparently leaked documents of Corona’s deposits in his possession.

“We cannot discuss the matter in caucus because we don’t know anything about it,” Senate Majority Leader Tito Sotto told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “Banal will instead be asked in open court.”

At Thursday’s trial, manager Annabelle Tiongson of Philippine Savings Bank’s Katipunan branch said Banal had sought her assistance on the leaked documents, a request she said she rejected.

Banal later briefly explained in court that he got the documents after someone allegedly left them at his gate in his St. Ignatius residence. The trial was adjourned afterward, with senators asking Banal to appear again this afternoon.

Supreme Court resolution

The caucus, according to Sotto, would take up the Supreme Court’s February 14 resolution allowing only limited access to certain court records the prosecution wanted scrutinized in the impeachment trial.

Defense counsel Ramon Esguerra on Saturday night criticized the “fishing expedition” in the past few trial days. During this period, the court tackled details of Corona’s bank accounts, with senator-judges and not prosecutors making bank officials admit to their existence.

‘Fake documents’

“Given all the realities in the trial, we know they’re wearing our patience thin, wearing us out,” Esguerra said by phone, referring to prosecutors.

“It’s been haywire, a fishing expedition the last three days. Since we cannot object to senator-judges asking questions of the witness, what else can we do? We are really at a disadvantage,” he said.

Tranquil Salvador III, also a member of the defense team, on Sunday said “all evidence (by the prosecution) will fall” in case it turned out that the Senate had subpoenaed Corona’s bank records based on fake documents provided by prosecutors.

“But assuming that they (evidence) stand, we have a good explanation,” he told the Inquirer, referring to discrepancies between money declared in Corona’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, and those deposited in his accounts.

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Aquino won’t stop attacks on Corona

BALER, Aurora—President Benigno Aquino III is not about to declare a ceasefire in his word war with impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona despite pleas from senators for the heads of two coequal branches of government to restrain themselves. 

Mr. Aquino on Sunday stepped up his attacks on Corona as Senator Edgardo Angara, one of the judges in Corona’s impeachment trial, sat a few meters away.

The President said his verbal attacks were not directed at the Chief Justice but at “the system” for which Corona was “the face” that the administration was fighting against.

“To keep quiet about the whole thing is, I think, wrong,” he told reporters in response to calls by some senator-judges for him and Corona to stop their word war and to just let the Senate impeachment court do its job.

Attending the 33rd founding anniversary of the province and the commemoration of the 124th birth anniversary of Doña Aurora Aragon-Quezon, the President said he would continue to voice out his thoughts on Corona “if needed.”

He led the wreath-laying rites on the statue of Doña Aurora and later inaugurated Aurora Medical Hospital.

Senator Angara thanked Mr. Aquino for accepting the invitation to attend the celebrations. “We remember acts of kindness and gratitude. We will never forget this,” he told the President during a program held on the capitol grounds.

On Thursday, at a meeting with students from various colleges and universities at La Consolacion College in Manila, Mr. Aquino said Corona’s failure to declare his multimillion-peso bank accounts was sufficient basis to remove him from office.

The President said Corona should be held to account using the same standards that caused a court interpreter to lose her job in 1997 for not declaring ownership of a stall in a public market.

Responding to Mr. Aquino’s attacks, Corona challenged the President to disclose his financial and psychological records. “We have an obligation to the people that we are of sound mind,” the Chief Justice said in a statement.

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Mike Arroyo lawyer charged with tax evasion

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Thursday filed in the Department of Justice a P12.32-million tax evasion case against Jesus Santos, one of the lawyers of former First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo.

Santos supposedly received excessive salaries and unwarranted bonuses and allowances during his term as member of the board of trustees of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). He is the third GSIS trustee to be charged with tax evasion.

Santos was charged with four counts of willful attempt to evade tax and four counts of willful failure to supply correct and accurate information in his income tax return, as well as failure to pay the correct taxes from 2006 to 2009, in violation of the internal revenue code.

Contacted by the Inquirer, Santos said he could not issue an immediate comment because he had not received any formal complaint.

GSIS documents

Allegations about excessive salaries and bonuses received by appointees to government-owned and -controlled corporations and state financial institutions came out during an inquiry by the Senate committee on finance.

The BIR looked into Santos’ financial transactions aided by documents from the Senate committee and the GSIS.

The BIR claimed Santos “substantially underdeclared” his income from 2006 to 2009. Santos allegedly declared only an income of P4.13 million for the four-year period but GSIS records supposedly showed his gross income totaled P24.66 million.

The BIR assessed Santos’ tax liability at P12.32 million for the four-year period, including surcharges and interests.

“A comparison made by BIR investigators of the income or revenues declared by Attorney Santos in his ITRs for taxable years 2006 to 2009 as against the income payments he received from GSIS in the same years revealed that he deliberately failed to declare his correct tax base by substantially underdeclaring his income for the said years,” BIR Commissioner Kin Henares said in a press briefing.

Santos served as Arroyo’s lawyer in the P12.5-million damage suit filed in 2006 against Arroyo by 36 journalists—most of whom Arroyo earlier charged with libel—and three media organizations.

Makati Rotary Club

The BIR also filed a P47-million tax evasion case against Makati Rotary Club Foundation Inc. (MRCFI) and its officers for purportedly passing off as a donation part of the revenues from the lease of its 20,063-square-meter property in Parañaque City from 2001 to 2010.

The bureau also recommended charges against the foundation’s chairpersons, presidents and treasurers during the period.

A staff at the MRCFI said the foundation would release a statement on the case shortly.

The case against MRCFI arose from confidential information that the BIR said it received from two complainants.

The BIR said it found out that MRCFI entered into a lease agreement with Fedders Koppel Inc. over the land and with Rohm & Haas Philippines Inc. (RHPI) over a manufacturing plant on the same property.

According to the bureau, MRCFI’s 2000 to 2004 lease contract with Fedders Koppel provided  a lease of P4 million for 2000 that increased to P4.9 million by 2004 and an annual donation of P2 million.

Interest-free

Investigators claimed that based on the lease agreements and court documents, MRCFI split rental payments from Fedders Koppel and RHPI into two parts—a lease portion and a substantial portion as “donation.”

MRCFI allegedly denominated portions of the rental payments as donations and compelled its lessees to give rental payments under the guise of a donation.

MRCFI, however, demanded interest from the date of the default of the rental and the purported donation, contrary to the nature of a donation, for which interest should not be charged, the BIR claimed.

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