Arroyo to prosecutors:
You misled the public

SENATOR-JUDGE Joker Arroyo lashed out at impeachment prosecutors for allegedly misleading the public when they released a list of 45 properties allegedly owned by Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona and his wife Cristina.

Arroyo also admonished Land Registration Authority administrator Eulalio Diaz for providing the list to the prosecution. The prosecution had attached the list in its request for a subpoena of documents to be used in the impeachment trial. The list was also made public to the media in the first half of January.

Defense lawyers had presented Diaz as a witness in the impeachment trial in order to debunk the list of properties that he himself had earlier provided to the prosecutors.

Diaz confirmed that he was the source of the list of 45 properties that prosecutors had submitted to the impeachment court detailing the alleged properties of Corona and his wife Cristina.

Prosecutors have since admitted that the original list was bloated, as some of the titles in the list had already been cancelled. The actual list of Corona properties, prosecutors said, is now down to 21 properties.

Defense counsel Noel Lazaro said that at least 17 of the 45 properties in the list Diaz had given the prosecution have had their original titles cancelled because they had already been sold to other people.

Of the original 45 properties, Lazaro said that further grilling of Diaz would whittle the number down to only five properties. For example, Lazaro said, the defense had already proven that at least seven properties had been sold to Demetrio Vicente, who had earlier testified before the impeachment court.

Diaz for his part said that the original list of 45 properties was generated through a computerized search of LRA records.

Senator-Judge Jinggoy Estrada asked why the LRA had not double checked the list before releasing it to the prosecution, which in turn released the list to the media.

Estrada also noted that Diaz had been a grade school classmate of President Benigno S. Aquino III, who has been supportive of the impeachment of Corona.

Senator-Judge Joker Arroyo complained of the cavalier attitude of Diaz. Arroyo said that the original list Diaz had released to the prosecution had already given the impression that Corona really owned 45 properties, when it was clear that the list was inaccurate and should have been trimmed first.

Arroyo said Diaz should have been more careful in screening the titles allegedly owned by the Coronas and requested by the prosecution. Arroyo said he was bothered by this “unfair” and “cavalier” treatment of the list.

Diaz said he was only asked for land titles that were linked to Corona. He said he expected that there would be further requests for “track-backs” or requests for more information on the titles.

Arroyo also castigated the prosecution panel, saying that they should at least have double checked and trimmed the list of 45 titles before it was released to media. For example, Arroyo said, there were some names in the list of 45 properties that were clearly not Coronas.

“Publicly stating that (list), and media repeating it, is terribly unfair. You present that there are 45 properties of Chief Justice Corona while the defense says they have only 5. How come when you received this letter (from Diaz), certain items I have read were not registered in the name of the couple, why did you announce to media that the Corona couple owned 45 properties?” Arroyo asked prosecutors.

“You misled the public. When you announced the 45, is that fair? When you say a person owns 45 and you are unsure, and in an impeachment proceeding?” Arroyo said.