‘No special discount for Corona’

A typhoon, coupled with the impact of a global financial crisis, allowed Chief Justice Renato Corona to acquire a 303.5-square-meter penthouse condominium unit at The Fort in Taguig City in 2009 at a “reduced price.”

A key prosecution witness called on Day 9 of Corona’s impeachment trial to show that the Chief Justice got a hefty P10-million “discount” because of cases pending in his court in the purchase of the unit at the Bellagio ended up giving testimony in favor of the defense.

Noli Hernandez, Megaworld Corporation’s senior vice president for marketing and sales, told senator-judges that Corona received only a regular 15-percent discount, which would have also been given to any other buyer at the time of the purchase.

In his testimony, Hernandez said Megaworld took some P5 million off the original P24.5-million selling price of the Bellagio penthouse, partly because of the effects of the global financial crisis.

Hernandez said the unit later on bought by Corona—the last unsold at Bellagio—was also unfinished or “semi-bare” and sustained “water damage” from a typhoon.

“We were thinking of maybe repackaging the whole thing or redesigning it … and we decided that it was going to cost us more to have it redone and it made more economic sense for us to give it at a steep discount,” he told the court.

“From P24 million, I decided to just lower the price to P19.6 million. So, there was a reduction of around P5 million because that’s how it was going to cost to have it redone, to go to the market and sell this particular (unit).”

Hernandez added: “Normally, we would not have given the P5-million reduction in (the original) price had the unit not been damaged by typhoon.”

Said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile: “So, actually, the discount was not because of any favor but because of force majeure?” The witness answered in the affirmative.

Hernandez said the only “special” discount given to the Chief Justice amounted to P1 million. He noted that Megaworld once sold a unit in a separate McKinley project at half its original price.

The witness added that the P5-million price reduction was not made because it was the Chief Justice making the purchase.

“From P19.6 million, we gave an additional, basically P5-million discount and of course, out of that additional P5-million discount, P3 million or 15 percent was given because the client was paying almost in cash,” Hernandez said.

Check out the hottest Local News in the Philippines