Impeach court to ignore CJ's alleged US properties

MANILA, Philippines - New evidence on the supposed properties of Chief Justice Renato Corona in the United States will be "disregarded" by the Senate impeachment court, one of the senator-judges said today.

"Any so-called evidence that are not formally presented will be disregarded," Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said in a television interview, reacting to the blog entry of online journalist Raissa Robles.

Pimentel said that the prosecution would also have a hard time entering new evidence on any properties allegedly owned by the Coronas because it had formally rested its case against Corona.

He said that the only time the prosecution can go back to the presentation of evidence is if its about the dollar account because "the prosecution itself said that our only reservation is the foreign accounts."

However, Pimentel said that the prosecution can still file an appropriate motion before the Senate impeachment court to discuss the alleged US properties of the embattled chief justice "in the greater interest of justice."

Robles posted online, screen grabs of purported US records showing a certain Renato C. Corona having addresses in at least two properties – one in Tampa, Florida and the other in Mountain View, California, the latter an upscale community in the heart of Silicon Valley and the headquarters of Google.

Robles said the information was given to her by a certain “Yvonne,” who searched the chief magistrate’s name on PeopleSmart and Intelius.

The online journalist, meanwhile, clarified that she is not saying Corona owns the two properties. She said: "I’m only saying that a certain Renato C. Corona is being linked somehow to these two addresses by US public records."

Corona had denied that his family owns "any property in the US."

“The addresses cited (in the report) were the apartments rented by my two daughters, both licensed physical therapists in the US, at various times over the past 14 years. These were therefore temporary mailing addresses at those various times,” Corona told The Philippine Star in a text message.

Corona said that the house in Bayshore in Tampa, Florida is “owned by a family friend where we stayed in the few times we visited Tampa and Orlando Disney World. That is also a mailing address.”

In a television interview Monday morning, Robles said that she has information that Corona's daughter, Maria Charina, bought a property in the US in 2008.

She said Maria Charina bought the property months before acquiring the P6.1 million property in McKinley Hill at The Fort in Taguig City.

In the same television interview, the defense team's spokesperson, Karen Jimeno, said that the information about the property of Maria Charina could not also be used in the impeachment trial.

"This conversation about the US properties is irrelevant in relation to the impeachment because we have to remember that in our search for truth, we have rules to follow," Jimeno said, apparently reacting to Robles' statement that she is pursuing the story on the Coronas' property in the US because she is a journalist and she wants to find out the truth.