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Chief Justice Renato Corona’s lawyers would like the public to believe that the under declarations and omissions in his SALNs (Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth) are all “not intentional”.
What the lawyers aren’t saying is that CJ Corona was a tax and corporate lawyer who once worked for two banks and for SGV & Company, the country’s largest auditing firm.
And that one of his areas of specialization when he took up a Master of Laws degree in Harvard University was the regulation of corporate and financial institutions.
To us, it’s our humble opinion your honor that if there may have been discrepancies, inaccuracies, incompleteness…(in his SALNs) these can be remedied after a review of the SALN is made. If it’s not intentional your honor, no criminal liability nor administrative liability is incurred by the filing official. The law of the matter is very clear.
Cuevas unwittingly provides the key to convicting Corona when he said – “If it’s not intentional…”
Using Cuevas’ arguments, this means that if CJ Corona intentionally made omissions and misdeclarations in his SALN, then he has both criminal and administrative liability.
Cuevas would like the public to believe that in financial matters, CJ Corona is somewhat bumbling. What does he know about filling up SALNs accurately.
However, CJ Corona himself has bragged about his knowledge on such matters.
Shortly after being sworn in by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Chief Justice two years ago, CJ Corona gave a much-applauded speech before the Manila Overseas Press Club. In that speech, which isdownloadable from the Supreme Court website, he said -
I used to write on tax and commercial law issues in my column “Tax Corner” in the Manila Chronicle many years back.
On the Supreme Court website, you can also read a short profile of CJ Corona. It discloses that he has an MBA from Ateneo de Manila University and a Master of Laws from Harvard.
And that he worked in the finance sector: First as a lawyer for the Development Bank of the Philippines. Second as senior vice-president and general counsel of the Commercial Bank of Manila. Then as a senior officer of the Tax and Corporate Counseling Group of the Tax Division of Sycip Gorres and Velayo (SGV & Co).
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