PALACE TO CORONA: GO ON LEAVE
MANILA, DECEMBER
15, 2011 (STAR) By
Edu Punay - Chief Justice Renato Corona took a fighting stance yesterday,
calling President Aquino a dictator determined to control the judiciary led by
the Supreme Court (SC).
The embattled head of the judiciary, who is facing an impeachment trial
before the Senate, fired tirades against the President before more than a
thousand supporters – including justices, judges and employees – who stepped out
of courtrooms in Metro Manila at noon and trooped to the SC building on Padre
Faura street in Manila to demonstrate their support for their chief.
Corona said his swift impeachment by allies of the Aquino administration in
the House of Representatives last Monday was "brought about by his greed to have
a Supreme Court that he can dictate upon and, even with just a glimpse, that
will quickly command his wishes."
"Itong mga itinatanim niyang gawain ay siguradong mamumunga lamang ng isang
diktadura – isang diktadura na nagmula sa paglilinlang at paglalason sa
pag-iisip ng ating mga kababayan (What he sowed will bear fruit of dictatorship
– a dictatorship that stemmed from deception and poisoning of our people's
minds)," he said in his speech.
He warned that if the Palace succeeds in ousting him, Aquino would be "in
control" not only of his Cabinet, but also of Congress and the Supreme Court.
"At ngayon, sasabihin ko po sa kanilang lahat: ako'y tumututol sa
walang-tigil na pang-aalipusta, pangduduro at pananakot. Ako'y tumututol sa
dahan-dahang binubuong diktadura ni Pangulong Benigno Simeon Aquino III (And
now, I tell them: I am against their relentless insults, finger-pointing and
threats. I am against the dictatorship that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III
is slowly creating)," Corona stressed.
His strong words triggered loud cheers and applause from his supporters.
The SC chief said he was wondering why Aquino seems so eager in ousting him
from office when they should instead be working together in solving many
problems facing the country, including "slow economic growth, high unemployment
rate, poverty and hunger."
Still, the Chief Justice vowed to answer the allegations before trial in the
Senate as he denied them point by point.
"Hinding hindi ko isusuko sa mga mapagsamantala ang Korte Suprema.
Handang-handa ako sa paglilitis (I will never surrender the Supreme Court to
opportunists. I am ready for my trial)," he stressed. "Wala po akong kasalanan
sa inyo, Ginoong Pangulo. Wala po akong kasalanan sa taongbayan (I have not done
you wrong, Mr. President. I have not done our people any wrong)."
He revealed that despite his impeachment, he still sleeps soundly at night
knowing that he remains "true to God, to myself, to the law, and to anyone."
Corona has already publicly belied allegations that he refused to disclose to
the public his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). He said he
had been religiously complying with rules on SALN every year.
He also denied allegations on his partiality toward former President Arroyo.
"We don't favor anyone here in this court. Our decision is the decision of
the Supreme Court and result of individual opinion." He added that his vote
constitutes only one of the 15 votes needed to resolve cases.
The Chief Justice likewise justified his vote for the issuance of a temporary
restraining order that would have allowed Arroyo to leave the country to seek
medical treatment abroad pending poll fraud charges.
"Panagutin natin ang dapat managot, pero idaan natin sa wasto at tamang
proseso sa ilalim ng Saligang Batas (We should hold accountable those who should
be held accountable, but we should do it the proper way and through the correct
process under the Constitution)," he explained.
On a more personal note, the SC chief admitted he was most offended by the
allegation involving his wife Cristina.
Corona vowed to prove that the charges against him were "all lies" and "just
a blackmail."
He concluded his speech with an appeal for understanding – that he is just
doing his job fighting for the independence of the judiciary.
Corona's wife and children as well as fellow magistrates of the SC –
Associate Justices Jose Portugal Perez, Teresita de Castro, Roberto Abad, Martin
Villarama Jr., Lucas Bersamin, Arturo Brion, Jose Mendoza, and Presbitero
Velasco – were behind him during his 25-minute speech. All of them are
appointees of Arroyo.
Supportive wife
Corona said his wife is his most valuable ally as he prepares to face the
public to address his impeachment.
Mrs. Corona said their family remains supportive of the embattled Chief
Justice who is facing possible ouster for alleged betrayal of public trust and
culpable violation of the Constitution due to partiality toward Arroyo.
"We just pray. We know everything will be okay because we know he has not
done anything wrong," she told reporters when asked how their family is coping
with such challenge.
Corona said he considers the House's inclusion of his wife in the Articles of
Impeachment the "height of disrespect."
"They probably thought they can make me give up by this. I am very lucky to
have a loving and strong partner in life, from whom I am getting my strength and
inspiration. I love you very much, Tina," he said in Filipino.
The Chief Justice kissed his wife as the crowd answered with loud cheers and
applause.
He stressed that his wife was appointed to a government post even prior to
his appointment as justice of the SC.
Corona has even thrown back the charge at the President: "Why, doesn't this
current administration have a couple and their child appointed to ranking office
in government?" He did not mention any names.
The SC said the issue of Corona's wife taking a government post had already
been resolved during his application for the top SC post last year.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman warned yesterday
the "polarization of government" would only aggravate the country's economic and
security woes.
Lagman said the country is facing numerous challenges, including rising
criminality and declining investments that Filipinos and the administration
urgently need to address.
"Let me also say that the present polarization in government is so disturbing
because the administration cannot afford to have this kind of division in the
face of a floundering economy, acceleration of hunger and poverty and the
decreasing rate of the activities of businesses," Lagman said.
"But all of these would be compounded by this present polarization. And the
members of the judiciary have all the reason to defend the independence of the
Supreme Court and the judiciary against this assault by the executive," he said.
He described the complaint as "a compilation of conclusions of facts and
laws, spiced by hearsay and allegations and motherhood statements."
"On trial here is not only the Chief Justice. What is on trial is the
institution of the judiciary, led by the SC because to pinpoint all the grounds
for impeachment are based on collegial decisions of the SC and you cannot fault
one justice, even the Chief Justice," Lagman said. With
Paolo Romero
Palace to CJ: Go on leave By Aurea Calica (The
Philippine Star) Updated December 15, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang yesterday urged Chief Justice Renato Corona
to take a leave of absence so as not to drag the whole judiciary into the issues
involved in his impending impeachment.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda also called on judiciary officials and
personnel not to allow themselves be used by Corona, who is trying to fend off
impeachment charges for alleged partiality and dishonesty.
Lacierda urged Corona to just answer the charges against him before the
Senate.
Lacierda stressed Corona must be convicted by the Senate as they believed the
Articles of Impeachment and the evidence against him were strong.
"I think it would be proper for him to take a leave considering that he's the
one undergoing trial and he's trying to involve the entire judiciary in the
impeachment case against him," Lacierda said.
According to Lacierda, they received information that the Office of the Court
Administrator of the Supreme Court (SC) instigated the "holiday" or stoppage of
work in some lower courts.
Lacierda said the "sudden declaration" of a court holiday yesterday "is yet
another example of how justice can be subverted to further the interest of one."
"If this is true, then one must ask if the judiciary is not being manipulated
into participating in one man's personal issues," Lacierda said.
"We call on members of the judiciary to not let themselves be used to further
the political agenda of one man and his patron," Lacierda said, referring to
Corona and former President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, who appointed him as chief
magistrate.
"We call on Chief Justice Corona, should he deny that a court holiday has
been declared, to order them back to work and not let slow to a grinding halt
the wheels of justice," he added.
Lacierda said the sudden declaration of a court holiday forced the suspension
of the hearings on the Maguindanao massacre yesterday, apparently to allow
"court employees to attend a hastily planned rally in support of Chief Justice
Corona."
The Senate has set the trial for Corona after the House of Representatives
passed the resolution accusing the chief magistrate of corruption and bias for
now Pampanga Rep. Arroyo who is under hospital arrest for alleged election
fraud.
Among other allegations, the impeachment complaint accuses the Corona-led SC
of ruling improperly in Arroyo's favor when she sought to leave the country last
month before she was arrested.
Corona "betrayed the public trust through his partiality" when his court
issued the order to allow Arroyo "an opportunity to escape prosecution and to
frustrate the ends of justice," the impeachment complaint said.
Corona also allegedly violated the Constitution and an anti-graft act when he
failed to publicly disclose all his properties.
"Respondent is suspected of having accumulated ill-gotten wealth, acquiring
assets of high value and keeping bank accounts with huge deposits," according to
the complaint.
Corona stressed he would not resign and vowed to fight back. He claimed
efforts to illegally oust him would destroy the country's democracy.
Arroyo appointed Corona to the Supreme Court shortly before she stepped down
last year, leading to widespread accusations that it was a midnight appointment.
President Aquino has been at odds with Corona, accusing him of being biased
for Arroyo and hampering her prosecution.
No dictatorship
Lacierda said the whole speech of Corona yesterday was designed to identify
President Aquino with a dictatorship.
"I think he (Corona) has no right to identify or to accuse the Chief
Executive of such due to the very fact that all sectors and all branches of
government were actively at work, though opposing in their view, would show that
democracy was vibrant and far from having one dictating on everyone," Lacierda
said.
Lacierda also downplayed talks of a constitutional crisis, saying a
constitutional process like impeachment should not spark one.
"What we are doing right now under the Aquino administration is trying to
dismantle the Arroyo apparatus of trying to protect her from accountability. We
have done so. We have removed her – we have removed (her appointee from) the
Office of the Ombudsman," Lacierda said, referring to Merceditas Gutierrez who
resigned last May.
" We have appointed men and women of unquestionable integrity to the other
constitutional commissions and we believe that Mr. Corona is a stumbling block
to our reform," he added.
Lacierda said they would not settle for anything less than a conviction of
Corona by the Senate.
"What's the point of impeaching if we cannot get a conviction? We hope the
senator-judges will be independent-minded, and evidence will show that Chief
Justice Corona should be removed," Lacierda said.
"We are focused on Chief Justice Corona. We perceive him as someone whom we
cannot rely on when it comes to genuine rule of law. He is biased from the very
start. He will be biased to the very end," he said.
When asked if they think removing Corona would make the SC friendlier to the
administration, he replied: "We don't want a friendly court, we want an
independent court."
Lacierda said that while "we are not impeaching the other justices" who voted
along with Corona, he reminded the public that there are still two other SC
justices, as mentioned by Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., who are accountable for
graft and corruption.
"The totality of the conduct of Chief Justice Corona is our basis for asking
that he be impeached. We will not make any comment on the others, there is no
decision on that point," he said.
"The President has been firm, that right now he believes that Mr. Corona does
not dispense justice, is not independent, is not objective, is not impartial. We
will leave it at that," Lacierda maintained.
At the same time, Lacierda refused to answer queries on whether Malacañang
would accept a verdict of acquittal from the Senate impeachment court.
"We believe that the evidence is strong," he stressed.
Lacierda reiterated that Corona was beholden to Arroyo since he had worked
with her since she was vice president. He said the Chief Justice's wife was
appointed to a position by the former president.
He said Corona, having served as chief of staff, presidential spokesman and
executive secretary and other confidential positions when Arroyo was still in
government, there was no way the people could expect objectivity and
impartiality from him.
"It has certainly affected his (Corona's) judgment in all cases where the
former President Arroyo is personally affected. And this is our position and
this is our contention: that he must be impeached and he was impeached and he
must be convicted by the Senate, by the senator-jurors," Lacierda said.
Lacierda claimed Corona's speech yesterday at the SC was pure lies and must
not be believed.
"The charges will stick; the evidence against him will stick. What we are
asking under President Aquino is not to dominate another branch of government.
What we are after is that we have justice; that our cases be tried based on
justice and equity," he said.
Lacierda moved on to enumerate the various cases that Corona voted in favor
of Arroyo after establishing the close ties between the Chief Justice and the
former president.
'The judiciary is not Corona'
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. yesterday scored Corona for making it appear
that the impeachment was an attack against the Supreme Court and the entire
judiciary.
Belmonte said he does not see any looming constitutional crisis with the
impeachment of Corona even as he denied the House railroaded the process.
"The Chief Justice should not confuse himself with the judiciary. The
judiciary is not he," Belmonte said.
Belmonte, however, said he respects the move of Corona to call for a court
holiday as he wanted to defend himself "in the best possible way."
He also said he would not join calls for the top magistrate to resign since
that would be a personal matter.
"Members of the SC or anybody in this country should not feel that they are
(above the law), that they can do anything because they are SC justices or
anything. It (impeachment) only shows that we are all subject to the same laws,"
Belmonte said.
He said it would be too much to say that the country is already in the thick
of a constitutional crisis since everything that happened so far has been in
consonance with the Constitution.
"There is no constitutional crisis whatsoever. I think this country would be
a very, very poor country if everything like this, we are crying that we are in
a constitutional crisis," Belmonte said.
"People should just continue to do their jobs as they should and we will in
this side do the same. It's going to be ridiculous that we're crying wolf all
the time, I mean, we'll be doing the public a disservice," he said.
Belmonte dismissed allegations that the Articles of Impeachment were
railroaded in the House and were accompanied by threats to lawmakers that they
would be deprived of their "pork" allocations if they did not support the move.
Belmonte said one lawmaker earlier complained that he was not able to get his
Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) after he did not vote for the
impeachment of former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. But a check with records
showed that he got his pork in full.
"If there are one or two people who are dissatisfied, that's democracy. Do we
take that against them? No. This is the terrific thing about it. Nobody ever
talked about PDAF, nobody talked about that (during the caucus)," he said.
Former President Joseph Estrada also called on Corona to face the impeachment
trial if he is innocent of the charges.
"It also happened to me. Maybe, there is due process. But in my case, it was
suddenly elevated to the Senate. And what happened was there were prosecutors
who are not included in the charges who joined that is why there was chaos. My
impeachment proceedings did not push through. I did not stop anything. I am
ready to face all the accusations against me," Estrada said.
Estrada lauded President Aquino for speaking out against Corona.
"I think President Aquino will stop (talking) once the impeachment trial
starts," Estrada said.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, for his part, said he respects Corona's vow to
fight back.
"He (Corona) has already said that he will fight for his belief that the
judiciary should be given respect. That is what he will fight for," he said.
"We must respect the belief of each and everyone of us in the spirit of true
democracy. But that must happen without violence. We must adhere to the process
enshrined under the Constitution," Binay said.
Constitutional crisis
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) announced their plans and course
of action in support of the SC and defending the Constitution.
IBP president Roan Libarios said they were alarmed by the impeachment case
against Corona because there was no mention in the Articles of Impeachment that
there was money, bribe or financial considerations involved in the SC decisions.
Libarios said that it now appears that the higher interpreter of the law and
higher arbiter of disputes is now Congress, and not the Supreme Court.
"It now appears there is a constitutional crisis, because we have a
subversion of the constitutional prerogatives," Libarios said.
Although the members of Congress who voted to impeach Corona talked about
partisanship, Libarios said this could not be a basis for impeachment.
He added that even the charges involving Corona's failure to fully disclose
his Statement of Assets, Liability and Net worth (SALN) and the judicial funds
are not sufficient grounds to accuse him of culpable violation of the
Constitution.
"There are long running assertions of the SC over constitutional fiscal
autonomy. There is also no disallowance by COA on these matters, so how can
there be culpable violation of the Constitution?" Libarios asked.
Cotabato Auxiliary Bishop Bagaforo, on the other hand, said the impeachment
of Corona could set a bad precedent.
He said if the Aquino administration would remove SC justices appointed by
Arroyo, they would just be appointing "robots" that would only follow the wishes
of the leader.
Bagaforo said he does not agree with the manner taken to impeach Corona
"because Malacañang is behind the movement."
Despite the accusations hurled against the judiciary, Bagaforo said he
continues to believe in the independence, integrity and professionalism of the
SC justices.
Libarios said the grounds cited in the impeachment complaint were premised on
issues involving the exercise by the SC of judicial review of cases submitted to
the court for resolutions.
"These are not personal to the Chief Justice," he said.
Libarios also said the issues of the Truth Commission, the conversion of 16
municipalities to cities, and the Dinagat island case were laws passed and
enacted by Congress, and that the chief magistrate merely affirmed them.
"So, how can Congress now in a different administration claim that Chief
Justice committed culpable violation when there was a law passed by Congress?"
he asked.
On the other hand, the clergy led by Novaliches Bishop Deogracias Yniguez
said the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is closely
monitoring the developments in the impeachment case against Corona.
Yniguez said the CBCP has yet to make a stand on the impeachment of Corona.
"I don't know if it is constitutional crisis. But the impeachment process is
part of our law. It is the process. We hope the process will ferret out the
truth. It is very, very legal. We have to validate if it is vindictiveness. We
have the impeachment process to make our country progress," Yniguez said.
San Fernando, Pampanga Mayor Oscar Rodriguez said the move to impeach Corona
is not a political move as claimed by the opposition.
The former Pampanga lawmaker said congressmen crossed party lines to support
the impeachment move.
Rodriguez said the number of those who wanted Corona impeached is
unprecedented in the history of the impeachment process in the country.
He said the process would bring good for the country, contrary to fears it
would throw the country into chaos.
"Any perceived abuse now will be put under scrutiny and they can't have
unbridled power," Rodriguez said. –With Delon Porcalla,
Paolo Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano, Evelyn Macairan, Manny Galvez
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
