Santiago links Diaz to PNoy,
accuses him of negligence, malice

Sen. Santiago gestures during the trial (pool photo)

SENATOR-JUDGE Miriam Defensor Santiago went full throttle against Land Registration Authority Administrator Eulalio Diaz, accusing him of gross negligence and malice for providing impeachment prosecutors a list of 45 properties allegedly owned by Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona that later turned out to be bloated.

Both prosecutors and defense counsels have concurred that the list of 45 properties released by Diaz to lead prosecutor Niel Tupas last January 12 contained properties that had already been sold to other persons by the Coronas.

Santiago had her turn with Diaz on the 33rd day of the impeachment trial. Diaz had already been severely criticized by Senator-Judges in his previous appearance before the impeachment court yesterday.

Santiago however took another tack and unearthed Diaz’ involvement with President Benigno S. Aquino III from several years back. President Aquino has been consistently pressing for the conviction of Corona by the impeachment court.

Under questioning by Santiago, Diaz admitted that he was part of the Senate staff of President Aquino when he was still a senator. Too, Diaz admitted that he also served as a volunteer during President Aquino’s presidential campaign in the 2010 elections.

Further back, Diaz also admitted that he had been a grade school batchmate of Aquino at the Ateneo de Manila.

Santiago said she found it hard to believe that these facts did not occur to Diaz when he drew up the list of 45 properties allegedly owned by Corona.

“You knew when you issued that certification that it was the President of the Philippines whom you served for many years who wanted the Chief Justice impeached,” Santiago told Diaz.

To this, Diaz replied: “It did not occur to me your honor.”

Santiago said it was highly unbelievable that Diaz was “completely innocent of the purposes” for which the prosecution asked for the list.

Diaz replied that he thought that Congressman Tupas merely “needed materials for research.”

Santiago said that Diaz could be held liable for gross negligence for releasing the list. She said the list of 45 properties that Diaz gave to the prosecution had unnecessarily dragged other people into the controversy. More than that, the list from Diaz had given the impression that Corona owned 45 properties.

Santiago said that the list had implicated “people with no relation to this case.”

“You issued a document highly incriminatory of these people,” she said.

For his part, Diaz said that he tried to be objective when he drew up the list, and that he would have done the same had the defense panel requested a similar list from him.

“I am not a party to this case,” Diaz said. “I would have assisted the defense if they asked for documents for their research.”

Santiago also dismissed Diaz’ protestations of innocence. Diaz had said that he did not take the extra effort to verify if the list was current in relation to the Coronas because he did not want to be accused of bias.

“I did not review the list because i might be (accused of) bias,” Diaz said.

“You mean you abstained from reviewing the list because you did not want to be called biased?” an incredulous Santiago said.