‘Minor discrepancies’?

What is the significance of a false statement under oath? Is it essentially different from a garden-variety lie, a mental reservation, a fib, an evasion, a little white lie, hyperbole?” US Rep. Henry Hyde asked that question before the US Senate during the impeachment trial of American president Bill Clinton. He was then pleading with the senator-judges to convict Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice, for having lied about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. We know the rest of the story. The Senate dismissed the raps, in effect recognizing that what Clinton did—the panicked reaction of a man fumbling to hide his mortifyingly embarrassing marital infidelity—did not rise to the level of crimes or misdemeanors, or grave abuse of power. It wasn’t betrayal of the public trust, merely that of his wife, Hillary.

The circumstances may be different in the ongoing Corona impeachment case, but Hyde’s question bears repeating in this case, after the Chief Justice’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) were recently finally released to the Senate and the hungry eyes of the public—but only following the performance of a small farce in which clerk of court Enriqueta Esguerra-Vidal expressed fear that she might be sanctioned for violating a court order against the release of the SALNs of members of the Judiciary, and Renato Corona himself, like a Mafia don bestowing protection and largesse, then and there assuring the clerk through his spokesman (excuse us, the Supreme Court’s— though it’s hard to tell) that she was safe from any blowback. Only then was the once-impregnable SALNs of the nation’s top judge laid bare for everyone’s avid inspection.

Corona, it turns out, might have a good reason for his reluctance to disclose his SALNs. A SALN, a legally mandated public document whose veracity and accuracy are attested to under oath by the submitting public official, can damn its owner for perjury, at the very least, should the declared facts and figures in it fail to match up with other official records—land titles, tax declarations, etc.—covering the owner’s accumulated properties. Moreover, under the law, such discrepancy constitutes prima facie evidence of ill-gotten wealth—a grave charge to lob at any government official, infinitely more so if he happens to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

On the third day of the impeachment proceedings, the prosecution managed to elicit, however inexpertly at times, copies of the titles and deeds of sale to some 40 properties in Taguig, Marikina and Quezon cities in the name of Corona, his wife or his children. When matched up against Corona’s newly disclosed SALNs, huge curiosities crop up. For instance, the Chief Justice’s total net worth in 2002 was P14.96 million. It went down to P7.359 million in 2004, then steadily climbed back to P14.559 million by 2009. In 2010, however, the year he became Chief Justice, his assets leapt to P22.938 million. It was also in 2010 that he and his wife bought a 303.5-square meter condominium unit in the posh Bellagio Residences in Taguig City, along with three parking lots. Total cost of the property: P14.510 million.

That purchase price, however, was confirmed not through any statement by Corona on his 2010 SALN, but by Randy Rutaquio, the register of deeds of Taguig, who submitted a copy of the deed of absolute sale pertaining to the Coronas’ Bellagio unit. In his 2010 SALN, while Corona did list this property, he valued it at only P6.8 million.

A mistake? Ah, but it wasn’t the first time. “In 2005,” reports the online news site Rappler.com, “the Coronas bought a 113-sq m condominium unit on the 19th floor of the Bonifacio Ridge, Taguig City for P9.1-M, according to the deed of sale. In his 2010 SALN, Corona valued this property at P2.4-M.” (Take note, too, that in 2005, Corona’s SALN put his assets at only P8.359 million).

All in all, while “the condominium units and lot in Makati, Taguig and Quezon City are worth P42.1-M, based on the deeds of absolute sale attached to these properties… Corona put the total value of these properties in his SALN at about P13.1-M only, equivalent to just a third of actual values based on deeds of sale.”

“Minor discrepancies” is how Corona’s defense team has so far characterized these disturbing inconsistencies. “A garden-variety lie, a fib?” The SALN is made under oath—and lying on it goes to the very heart of Corona’s character. Can the nation afford what looks like deceitful, squalid behavior by its highest magistrate?