Rappler Newscast | May 14, 2012

HEADLINES
Today on Rappler.

• Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales testifies on at least 10 million dollars in 82 acounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
• Significant transactions in Corona’s dollar accounts were done in election year 2004 and the week he was impeached by Congress.
• And, Ateneo School of Government Dean Tony La Vina says the Ombudsman’s testimony is the moment of truth in the impeachment trial.

Story 1: MY MANDATE
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales takes the witness stand today at the Corona Trial.
Morales contests moves to name her an adverse witness on the basis of the investigation she started on the alleged 10 million dollar accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Story 2: POWER POINT
For the first time in the Corona Trial, a witness uses a power point presentation to present evidence.
The court earlier refused to allow Prosecutor Arlene Bag-ao to use a power-point to present evidence from a PAL labor union officer.
The Ombudsman gets the support of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago who says the presentation should be allowed as long as it is material to the case.

The Senator-Judges also unanimously voted to allow the presentation.
Using the power of visuals, Morales narrates the movement of dollars from 1 account in 2003 to 2011, when Corona had 82 dollar accounts, for a total of 10 million dollars in transactional balances in at least 5 banks.
Significant transactions were made in election year 2004 and the week the Chief Justice was impeached.
The Ombudsman says, fresh deposits total 12 million dollars.

Story 3: HEIDI MENDOZA
The impeachment court calls on Commission on Audit Commissioner Heidi Mendoza to continue explaining the Corona dollars.
Cuevas objects to Mendoza’s testimony, saying it was Morales the panel asked to appear in court.
Mendoza says the total inflow of transactions reached $28.7 million while total outflow reached $30.7 million.
Mendoza explains, the outflow is greater than the inflow because these are transactions captured by AMLC.
Asked about Corona’s peso accounts, Mendoza says she was told peso accounts reached 242 million pesos.

Story 4: MOMENT OF TRUTH
A moment of Truth – that’s how Ateneo School of Government Dean Tony La Viña describes the testimony of Ombudsman Morales.  
She provides 17 pages of the AMLC report to the prosecution and the defense today.  
He adds, the Ombudsman is obviously the “winner” in the showdown with Chief Defense Counsel Serafin Cuevas.
Shadow of a Doubt author Marites Vitug, also Rappler’s Editor at Large, notes it was typical of the Chief Justice to let his laywers fight his case without the information they need.

Story 5: LIVE SENATE
After Monday’s earth-shaking revelations…
Let’s find out how the defense is reacting.
Joining us live from the Senate is Ayee Macaraig.
Ayee, how did the defense lawyers react while the ombudsman was presenting the numbers?
What was the mood in the senate hall that moment?
Thank you Ayee Macaraig live from the senate.

Maria, it’s a concoction.
That’s how lead defense counsel Serafin Cuevas describes the testimony of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
First, the defense questions the authenticity of the AMLC report to the Ombudsman.
Cuevas reveals, the panel filed a request to subpoena AMLC executive director Vicente Aquino after hearing a report that he allegedly denied doing an audit on the bank accounts of the chief justice.
We have been trying to reach Aquino to confirm this but he has not responded.
Another tact of the defense is to question the competence of Morales saying her testimony was hearsay.
Cuevas also says that the Ombudsman violated Corona’s right by asking him to testify against himself.
Here is what Cuevas told us after the trial.

Una these are all dollar accounts prohibited ng inquiry under RA 6426 and yet pinayagan nang pinayagan. Ngayon, may denial ang executive director ng AMLC. Wala raw siyang audit na ginagawa so concoction lang nila. JC She never testified testified that these were bank accounts. They were transactional accounts.
SERAFIN CUEVAS
LEAD DEFENSE COUNSEL

Story 6: CORONA STATEMENT
Chief Justice Renato Corona describes the testimony of Ombudsman Morales as “malicious” and a “lantern of lies”
Corona also said he will debunk all of Morales’s allegations and dared her to resign if she’s proven wrong.
Corona says “The initial testimony of the Honorable Ombudsman is quite unfortunate, if not very malicious.”
Corona adds “The number of accounts alone is at best ridiculous.”
The Chief Justice adds “Either she does not know what she is talking about, or is purposely misleading the Impeachment Court and the public.”

Story 7: THE wRap
Let’s now look at Rappler’s “wRap” for today, a list of the ten most important events around the world you shouldn’t miss.

At number 2, Filipinos can now work in Iraq, but only for the Middle Eastern country’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
The government banned the entry of Filipinos in Iraq 8 years ago after truck driver Angelo Dela Cruz was kidnapped and threatened with beheading.
Filipinos continue to enter Iraq for work despite the ban.

At number 3, JP Morgan’s $2 billion loss on derivatives trade ends in the resignation of 3 senior executives, including the executive who oversaw the trade.

At number 8, social network Facebook gets ready for its initial public offering.
The company will be selling 337 million shares.
Brokers are calling Facebook this year’s hottest stock issue.
The chances of small investors getting a piece of the pie is small.

And at number 9, Yahoo! boss Scott Thompson steps down in the face of controversy over his allegedly inflated resume. Yahoo! concedes the “inadvertent error,” and Thompson becomes the 6th Yahoo! CEO to step down in five years.

Story 8: PALARO CLOSING
Palarong Pambansa ended over the weekend, with perennial over-all champion, the National Capital Region reigning supreme.
The last day of the games was marred with the controversial win of NCR over Western Visayas in the volleyball finals for secondary-boys…
pushing both teams to boycott the event’s awarding ceremony.
DepEd’s official regional standings puts Western Visayas at second place and Southern Tagalog at third.
During the closing ceremonies, athletes and sports officials gathered, while lanterns filled the sky.

Benchmark? puede nyo pong sabhin nyon, napakaganda ng nangyari sa Pangasinan. Masayang masaya. in the scale of 1 to 10. i would like to say 10.
TONOSITO UMALI
DepEd ASSISTANT SECRETARY

– Rappler.com