MANILA, Philippine - Impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona on Monday dismissed Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales' presentation before the Senate impeachment court as a "lantern of lies," saying he was ready to debunk all her claims.
Corona also urged the Ombudsman, his former colleague at the Supreme Court, to step down from her post after the chief justice proves that all her presentations are wrong.
Corona also urged the Ombudsman, his former colleague at the Supreme Court, to step down from her post after the chief justice proves that all her presentations are wrong.
“The number of accounts alone is at best ridiculous. Her PowerPoint diagram is a lantern of lies which only messed up her presentation, contrary to what some believe now as damning evidence,” Corona said in a statement.
“Either she does not know what she is talking about, or is purposely misleading the Impeachment Court and the public. Is she even privy to how the AMLC [Anti-Money Laundering Council] arrived at the bloated numbers?” he added.
He said that his camp would be ready to "debunk all" of the Ombudsman's "bloated numbers."
"And once she is proven wrong, I urge her to immediately resign from her post for allowing herself to be used by this Administration and making a laughingstock of ‘government auditing'."
During Monday's trial, the Ombudsman disclosed that as of 2011, Corona maintained 82 dollar accounts in five different banks with "transactional balances" of at least $10 million.
Carpio-Morales' information was based on data from the AMLC. She said Commissioner Heidi Mendoza of the Commission on Audit had helped her analyze the transcations allegedly made by Corona in his accounts.
According to Mendoza, in a span of eight years, nearly $29 million or roughly P1.2 billion went into the four main alleged dollar accounts of Corona.
She said the four accounts had a total inflow of $28,740,497.93 that included deposits, credit memos, fund transfers, and internal remittances.
Meanwhile, the total outflow in the same accounts, which included withdrawals, debit memos, purchases, and outward remittances, amounted to $30,758,878.51 or about P1.3 billion, according to Mendoza.
The COA official said the withdrawal appeared bigger because it did not show the beginning balance of the accounts.
But Corona said the allegations were similar to the "LRA hoax." He was referring to the Land Registration Authority's computer-generated data that showed that the chief justice had 45 properties.
This was later debunked by Corona's defense team saying the chief justice only had five properties as stated in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.
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