CJ Renato Corona Willing to Open Dollar Account to Prove he has Nothing to Hide

Tweet

According to ABS-CBN News,  Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona on Wednesday said he will be opening his dollar deposits in his impeachment trial to prove he has nothing to hide.

"Whether or not there was a TRO from the Supreme Court, I said I will open it in due time and the due time is next week. I have always said there is no problem with my dollar deposits because I can explain it, " Corona said in a radio interview.

Corona's lead counsel, Serafin Cuevas, said last week that opening the dollar accounts would not contradict anything presented in the trial.

Corona's dollar accounts have been the subject of speculation after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order, stopping Philippine Savings Bank from opening the Chief Justice's dollar deposits.

Prosecutors earlier produced an allegedly leaked document that said Corona could own as much as "$700k", allegedly $700,000, in PSBank. Defense lawyer Karen Jimeno earlier said Corona's dollar deposits are part of his savings before he became Chief Justice.

The prosecution's document was also used to open Corona's peso accounts, which contained at least P19,728,555.39 as of end-December 2010. This is higher than the P3.5 million cash and investments he declared in his statement of assets, liabilities and networth (SALN) for 2010.

In a separate TV interview, Corona said he will also explain the supposed discrepancy between his SALN and the contents of his bank accounts.

He said there was too much emphasis on his salary as a Chief Justice when he had other allowances from the High Court.

“Yun po ang pinalalabas ng mga naninira sa akin. Yan ay isang bagay na matagal ng pag-iintay na maipaliwanag ko. Sapul sa simula, ako ay magpapaliwanag. I will give an adequate explanation of each centavo that came in went out,” he said.

He added the perception that he amassed illegal wealth was a product of a “professional demolition job,” and noted that some of his wealth came from his earnings when he was working in the private sector.

“Pinalalabas kasi na ako daw ay walang-wala ng pumasok sa gobyerno. Eh hindi na totoo yan. Ako po ay top executive sa private sector, may naipon po ako, at ang pamilyang pinanggalingan ko ay hindi walang wala.”