Corona has 24, not 45 properties –
prosecutors

PROSECUTION LAWYERS came under fire from several Senator-Judges after lead prosecutor Niel Tupas told the impeachment court that Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona only had 24 real properties, and not 45 as earlier reported in the media.

During a grilling by senators, Tupas claimed that prosecutors never accused Corona of owning 45 real properties. In fact, Tupas said the prosecutors would only prove the existence of 24 properties, as the others were either “cancelled or naibenta na.”

The statement drew flak from Senator-Judge and Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, who said that he distinctly remembered video footage of impeachment prosecutors presenting before media a list of 45 properties that they said belonged to the Coronas. Tupas claimed that the prosecutors never said that Corona owned 45 properties, an assertion that drew murmurs from the gallery.

Tupas claimed that the assertion that Corona owned 45 properties really came from the land Registration Authority (LRA). Asked if prosecutors were then responsible for publicizing and releasing the LRA list to the public, Tupas merely said that they attached the LRA list to their petition to subpoena the land titles.

Interestingly, several news websites carried the story of prosecution lawyers apparently linking Corona to the 45 properties. The accusation, the prosecutors said in a press conference last January 12, was based on the list provided by the LRA. Some of the related stories came out in Interaksyon, BusinessWorld, and Inquirer.net.

Estrada berated Tupas, saying prosecutors were playing it fast and loose by releasing all sorts of information to the media instead of the impeachment court. Several senators again repeated the warning aired last week that the impeachment trial outside the courtroom, or the court of public opinion, was proceeding faster than the trial inside the courtroom.