MRS. Cristina Corona, wife of embattled Chief Justice Renato Corona, on Thursday linked the revival by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the malversation charges filed against her in the bid of President Aquino and his allies to impeach her husband.

Mrs. Corona filed her counter-affidavit before Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon denying the charges lodged against her by Frank Daytec Jr., former operations manager of John Hay Management Corp., that she used to head.

The allegations of Daytec, according to Mrs. Corona, “are all bare-faced lies” and “are purely black propaganda” guised as a suit to further malign the image of her husband, who is facing impeachment trial before the Senate.

“It does not take much effort to see that this is directly and unequivocally connected to the political pressure by some quarters for my husband, Chief Justice Renato Corona, to inhibit from certain cases pending in the Supreme Court or altogether resign from the Court, or otherwise be impeached. The Chief Justice is clearly the target, not me,” Mrs. Corona said in a statement.

However, in an interview with Daytec’s lawyer-sister Cheryl Daytec during Thursday’s preliminary investigation of the case, she immediately countered Mrs. Corona’s claim saying that the case is primarily against her and not her husband and it was just “unfortunate” that the revival of the case coincided with the impeachment of the latter.

Daytec, however, admitted that their camp is also wondering why it took the DOJ more than one year to act on the complaint of her brother.

Mrs. Corona did not appear before the investigating panel headed by State Prosecutor Vmar Barcellano as she opted to subscribe her affidavit before Fadullon.

Her lawyer, Stanley Fabito, said Mrs. Corona’s presence is necessary during the preliminary investigation stage.

Last year Daytec Jr.  filed charges against Mrs. Corona for allegedly misusing JHMC’s funds amounting to P170,000 during her stint as board member and president of the corporation.

Daytec claims Mrs. Corona, upon sensing the end of her stint at JHMC in June of last year following the Chief Justice’s appointment, supposedly wanted the amount be immediately reimbursed which allegedly included personal billings such as expenses for spa services, driver’s accommodations, and others.

Mrs. Corona, however, refuted Daytec’s allegations, saying that all her expenses charged to JHMC were “official expenses incurred as president of the corporation traveling to Baguio as part of my duties.”

Such trips, according to Mrs. Corona, called for certain necessary and legitimate expenses such as accommodations, food, gasoline, toll which totalled to P90,000 paid by JHMC for 2008, P50,000 for 2009, and P30,000 for 2010.

“Mr. Daytec claims these were personal expenses. Such claim is a malicious lie as these were not personal but official, legitimate expenses,” Corona said.

She noted that the amounts she incurred during her stint at the JHMC were “frugal and prudent” and were all authorized and approved by the JHMC board of directors and ratified by its stockholders.

She added that the said expenses were fully passed in audit as proper and legitimate by the Commission on Audit.

“Suffice it to say that both the motivation behind the filing of the complaint and this suspicious timing of its ‘resurrection’ after almost a year-and-a-half of hibernation and the complaint itself has absolutely no basis in fact and in law,” Corona pointed out.