Machinations

By Ernesto Hilario / About Town

WHAT did impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona consistently say about Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI), the corporation established way back in the 1960s by the family of his wife Cristina?

To refresh our memories, here’s what he said: “I have purposely stayed away from BGEI affairs, as this is a family concern.” Or words to that effect.

But how was he able to take out a loan—or was it a cash advance?—in the amount of P11 million from BGEI as he had declared in one of his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth?

The Chief Justice had also acknowledged that he withdrew more than P30 million from the Katipunan branch of PSBank on December 12, 2011, the day he was impeached by the House of Representatives, because he had lost his trust in the bank for violating bank-secrecy laws. He later said this money wasn’t his, but held in trust for BGEI, the proceeds from the sale of a piece of property in Bustillos, Manila, owned by the family corporation and expropriated by the city of Manila to the tune of P34.7 million in 2001.

And why is his defense team now contradicting him by saying that the money used to buy posh condominium units and kept in peso and dollar deposits came from BGEI? If he had “purposely stayed away from BGEI affairs,” how come it is now the main source of all his assets?

In fact, in last Tuesday’s hearing, the defense lined up two witnesses, the clerk of court and the sheriff of the Quezon City RTC, who were supposed to validate their claim that Corona’s assets did, in fact, come BGEI.

Their testimonies, instead of serving Corona in good stead, cast him deeper into the muck.

One, it was revealed that Corona’s daughter, Carla Castillo, had managed to buy 90 percent of BGEI for practically peanuts. She bid P28,000 for a company that had already P34.7 million squirreled away in bank deposits from the sale of the Bustillos property. The bid was immediately accepted by the sheriff without any questions asked, nor any attempt, however feeble, for Carla to up the ante.

Presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile then wondered aloud why the 4,839 BGEI shares of Jose Ma. Basa III and his wife, which had a par value of P100 each or P483,900, were sold for only P28,000. “Given the value of the [BGEI] property [in Manila], which was sold at P34.7 million, the fair market of the share is a lot, lot, lot more than the par value,” Enrile said.

The auction was conducted by the court as part of the writ of execution on a libel case that Cristina had filed—and eventually won—against her uncle, Jose Ma. Basa III. The court awarded Cristina P500,000 in damages in October 2002.

But why the Corona daughter would bid a paltry sum for a multimillion-peso corporation was not the only oddity that surfaced during the hearing.

The auction was held after the death of Basa, and as any law student knows, death extinguishes any civil or criminal liability. The sheriff admitted he learned that Basa was already dead only during Tuesday’s hearing.

No wonder, therefore, that prosecution spokesman Rep. Romero Quimbo called the sale of BGEI shares to Carla “extremely and highly irregular, illegal and void,” and asked that the court sheriff be held liable for neglecting his duties and allowing BGEI to change hands for practically peanuts.

The tack by the Corona camp to use BGEI as his shield against allegations of having amassed ill-gotten wealth grossly disproportionate to his legitimate income has obviously fallen flat on its face.

Instead of helping him, the two defense witnesses on Tuesday even validated what the prosecution has been saying all along: That he has betrayed public trust by manipulating the very same justice system that he heads to acquire hidden wealth.

Corona’s ill-concealed machinations in BGEI tell us very clearly that he lacks the integrity needed to continue as Chief Magistrate.

Remember that Corona assured the public “101 percent” that he had no property in the US only to backtrack not long after and admit that he had bought a house in California “dirt-cheap.”

Can we trust a Chief Justice with a penchant for not telling the truth? Obviously not.

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com