'Basa-Corona reconciliation not relevant to case'

MANILA, Philippines - The reconciliation of the feuding members of the Basa and Corona families would not affect the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona, the prosecution said yesterday.

“Their feud and reported reconciliation are immaterial and irrelevant to the impeachment charges against the Chief Justice,” prosecution spokesman Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said.

Angara said he doesn’t think the reported reconciliation of Cristina Corona with her relatives would influence senator-judges in deciding Chief Justice Corona’s case.

“The senator-judges would be guided by the evidence,” he added.

Mrs. Corona and her estranged relatives were seen hugging each other on Friday during a break in the Chief Justice’s testimony.

The Basa family members have been feuding for 30 years over family property.

Just three days before, the feuding relatives avoided seeing each other eye-to-eye, though they were seated just meters apart inside the Senate session hall.

In his opening testimony on Tuesday, the Chief Justice described the late father of Mrs. Corona’s relatives, Jose Basa III, as a “spoiled brat” and “unemployed.”

Defense lawyers have justified Corona’s acquisition of some condominium units by saying their client had made a “cash advance” of P11 million from Mrs. Corona’s family corporation, Basa-Guidote Enterprises, Inc. (BGEI).

They said the cash advance or loan was reflected in Corona’s SALN.

They presented former Manila mayor Lito Atienza to prove that the city government had bought a BGEI property in Sampaloc, for which it paid the corporation P34.7 million.

A daughter of the Coronas, Carla Castillo, had bought BGEI, together with the P34.7-million it received from the Manila City government, for P28,000 in a public auction.

Angara said the alleged loan from the Basa family corporation is the only information material to the Corona impeachment case.

“All the feud, the wrangling, the drama, all that is not material to the case,” he said.

However, Angara pointed out that Corona’s lawyers failed to present evidence that their client really took out an P11-million cash advance from the BGEI.

“Assuming he did, still, P11 million was not sufficient for the four condominium units that the Coronas bought between 2002 and 2010. The 303-square-meter Bellagio penthouse alone in Global City, Taguig cost P14.5 million,” he stressed.