The government’s move not to file a petition over Sandiganbayan’s November 2022 decision dismissing the P130-million civil forfeiture case filed against the late chief justice Renato Corona, his wife Cristina, and associates has paved the way for the case to rest with finality.
The decision came after the Sandiganbayan Second Division said in its 4-page resolution that the Office of the Ombudsman did not file a motion for reconsideration or appeal of the court’s 3 November decision.
The government filed the case against Corona, his wife, and their dummies, trustees, assignees, transferees, and successors-in-interest through the Ombudsman in 2014.
Ombudsman’s decision not to appeal the earlier ruling opened the door for the anti-graft to grant the omnibus motion to issue a certificate of finality and lift the writ of preliminary attachment earlier issued against Corona’s properties.
“Considering the finality of judgement in the instant case, it has now become a ministerial duty of the court to issue a Certificate of Finality and to cause its entry of the same to the Books of Judgments,” the resolution penned by Associate Justice Arthur Malabaguio read.
The civil case stemmed from Corona’s alleged failure to declare several properties and cash assets in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth or SALN.
The Sandiganbayan earlier ruling junked the forfeiture case against Corona after the prosecution failed to prove that his assets were ill-gotten and that he, his wife, and associates have other sources of income aside from their salaries as public officials.
It said that while the former chief justice may have been “negligent” and “careless” in filing his SALNs, the Ombudsman’s prosecution team still failed to prove that Corona’s assets were obtained illegally.
This is especially true given that Corona’s heirs, his wife, Cristina, and their three children, were able to provide sufficient documentation to present the source of their family’s wealth.
Corona was appointed as an associate justice by then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 9 April 2002 and then as Chief Justice on 12 May 2010, following the retirement of Chief Justice Reynato Puno.
In May 2012, the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, convicted Corona after two years in office before he was impeached in 2011.
He was also facing impeachment and several tax evasion cases before he died of cardiac arrest in April 2016.