Secretary to blame for SALN error?
The “endgame” scenarios cited by Randy David in his March 18 column emphasized that impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona should testify not only to prove that he did not cheat or steal people’s money but that he has the integrity to hang on to his post.
While I agree with David, I don’t think any testimony by Corona or by his wife Cristina can ever change the fact that he either undervalued or did not declare in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) the pricey condos he acquired and the millions of pesos he deposited in several banks.
Corona’s leaving blank the spaces for “acquisition costs” in his SALNs is prima facie evidence that he was not truthful with his declaration and thus is guilty beyond any iota of doubt.
As declared by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, no one, much less the Chief Justice, must take a cavalier attitude in filing SALNs because the SALNs must be truthful and bereft of errors, inadvertent or not.
The fact that SALN filers swore on them leaves no avenue for passing the buck on to anyone, like the secretary whom Corona’s lawyers want to blame for the “inadvertent” mistake.
There can be only one endgame for Corona—his ouster. The only question is how—that could only be either by his conviction, or by his resignation before a guilty verdict is handed down to him by the Senate.
—GLADYS SORIANO,
