inside Philippine politics and beyond
By Raïssa Robles Friday I phoned Ninez Cacho-Olivares of The Daily Tribune to ask how I was supposed to have obtained the bank documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona from a certain Gigi Sawit and handed these personally to Congressman Rey Umali. I had never met them both, I told her. I could hear the surprise in her voice [...]
By Raïssa Robles Yesterday I was surprised when one of my sources told me there was word going around that I was the “Little Lady” who had leaked the bank documents of Chief Justice Corona to a House prosecutor. I realized then I had just become part of the story. By the way, for the record, I am NOT the [...]
By Raïssa Robles In January 2001, Joker Arroyo took the lead in asking the Senate impeachment court to subpoena Cathy Weir, then president of Citibank N.A., in order to produce records on then President Joseph Estrada’s dollar deposits. Arroyo was then a House senior prosecutor in Estrada’s impeachment trial. A grateful nation subsequently voted Joker Arroyo to the Senate [...]
By Raïssa Robles Chief Justice Renato Corona’s lawyers would like the public to believe that the under declarations and omissions in his SALNs (Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth) are all “not intentional”. What the lawyers aren’t saying is that CJ Corona was a tax and corporate lawyer who once worked for two banks and for SGV & [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles When Renato Corona was nominated for a vacant seat in the Supreme Court back in 2001, an uncle of his wife Cristina personally wrote the Judicial Bar Council (JBC) to oppose his nomination in order “to save the SC from discredit and disrepute.” Jose Maria Basa III warned that Corona “will not be capable [...]
January 28, 2012 To the prosecution panel The House of Representatives Dear Sirs: I am wondering why a press release from Congress says I am one of those to be subpoenaed to be asked in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. According to the press release, I am being summoned to testify on Article 7, of [...]
In the interest of fairness and justice, I would like to share with you this very fascinating glimpse of the man who is now at the center of a political firestorm – Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. The excellently written sketch was written by Maria Rosa “Bing” Nieva Carrion, a former schoolmate of CJ Corona’s wife, Cristina. At the [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles Chief Justice Renato Corona was required by the SALN law to disclose starting 2003 that his wife sat on the board of a state-owned corporation, former Civil Service Commission chair Karina David told me in an interview. David was chair of the Civil Service Commission when Cristina Corona first joined the board of John [...]
Read his formula for computing corruption My exclusive By Raïssa Robles Prosecutors in the impeachment trial might not know they have a document they can refer to when they present ITRs and SALNs as evidence. It’s a document written by someone who happens to be named Renato C. Corona. The document is Chief Justice Corona’s landmark decision on July 15, [...]
My Exclusive By Raïssa Robles According to a Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) he filed in 2003, Chief Justice Renato Corona got what he described as a “cash advance” of P11 million pesos from a company he identified as his “wife’s family corporation”. What he didn’t say in his SALN was that the lender company had [...]
By Raïssa Robles Examining for the first time the official disclosures of Chief Justice Renato Corona regarding his worldly wealth, I am reminded of this bible verse from Luke, Chapter 16, verse 10: If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest [...]
Read the SC expenses rejected by the WB My Exclusive by Raissa Robles Last Monday January 16, Chief Justice Renato Corona denounced as “a huge lie” a leaked World Bank report stating that the WB had rejected the charging of plane fares, dinners, hotel expenses incurred under CJ Corona’s watch. These expenses amounting to US$199,900 were charged against a [...]
My Exclusive By Raïssa Robles When Chief Justice Renato Corona bought his luxury penthouse overlooking a golf course for P14.5 million, the government taxed the transaction at under a million pesos. Iluminada Lucio, acting Chief of the Asset Valuation Division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, confirmed to me that the transaction paid the correct taxes, if based on [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles This contradicts the statement earlier made by Chief Justice Renato Corona’s lead lawyer that his client was still paying installment on his luxury condo to this day. A Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) officer told me he personally signed a document in late 2009 which assumed that CJ Corona had fully paid up for [...]
Low taxes “unheard of” in the business, broker says My Exclusive By Raïssa Robles Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona may have been sold a luxury penthouse at a very special discounted price. He also may have enjoyed tax breaks on the same transaction, courtesy of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, sources separately confirmed to me. What’s wrong with [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles Cristina Corona, wife of Renato the Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice, claims that a Department of Justice investigation of her is actually connected to her husband’s impeachment trial. According to her, “the Chief Justice is clearly the target, not me,” she said in a statement. She has denounced as “bare-faced lies” and “purely black propaganda” all [...]
By Raïssa Robles In recent days, President Benigno Aquino III has been likened to a monarch, dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Fidel Castro and even Hitler. How did PNoy – long tagged as a “Retard”, ”Abnoy” and “malambot” suddenly transition into an evil super-brained bad-ass who’s supposed to be “smarter than Marcos”? Listen to how Noynoy critic Senator Joker Arroyo puts [...]
By Raïssa Robles When obscenely rich and powerful Filipinos get into legal trouble, who do they turn to? Estelito Mendoza. When then President Joseph Estrada faced a Senate impeachment trial, who defended him? Estelito Mendoza. When former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently tried to skip the country ahead of an imminent electoral sabotage case, who went on her behalf to [...]
By Raïssa Robles I read with great interest a Philippine Star story on lawyer Oliver Lozano’s impeachment complaint filed against President Benigno Aquino III entitled ‘Direct assault on SC another impeachable offense.’ Lozano implied that PNoy was worse than dictator Ferdinand Marcos because PNoy had publicly castigated Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. Lozano was quoted as saying the following: “Even [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles When Senator Antonio Trillanes was in detention for a capital crime, he was banned from using the Internet and mobile phone by a regional trial court judge. Trillanes appealed the ban but the government of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo successfully blocked this, as well as his request to physically attend Senate sessions. That was [...]