CHARGES VS CJ SOLID
MANILA, JANUARY 17, 2012 (STAR) By
Christina Mendez (The Philippine Star) Updated January 17, 2012 12:00 AMC
[PHOTO - Senators stand for the invocation at the start of the
impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday. MANNY MARCELO]
MANILA, Philippines - Senators yesterday threw out a motion to hold a
preliminary trial in the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona,
ensuring that the unprecedented impeachment trial would proceed without delay.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile also rejected a motion to cite in contempt
members of the House prosecution panel.
"The Senate should forthwith proceed, for that is the mandate given to us by
the Constitution, with the trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, acting on the
Articles of Impeachment," Enrile said.
Corona and his wife Cristina showed up at the hearing yesterday.
"In accordance with the mandate of the Constitution, in view of the
foregoing, motion for preliminary hearing filed by the Chief Justice Renato C.
Corona is denied for want of merit. So ordered," Enrile said.
But the impeachment court ruled to "consider" Corona's motion that it look
into the actuations of House lead prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. who revealed in
a press briefing last week the Chief Justice's acquisition of a P14-million
condo unit at The Bellagio in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. Tupas also
showed the media titles to Corona's alleged properties.
Prior to the start of impeachment proceedings, the senators held an
all-senators' caucus where they discussed how they would deal with motions filed
by both parties.
The impeachment process resumes at 2 p.m. today.
Corona's lead counsel, retired justice Serafin Cuevas, said Corona appeared
"to show his respect to this entire body."
"He is entering a plea of not guilty in all the charges filed against him,"
Cuevas said.
Sen. Franklin Drilon questioned Cuevas' manifestation, saying that the call
of the presiding officer was to record the appearances of counsels and not to
entertain any motions.
Corona was straight-faced even as House lead prosecutor Iloilo Rep. Niel
Tupas recited a litany of the Chief Justice's "sins," including his partiality
toward former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
"Impeach, we must," Tupas said.
Enrile also cautioned the defense and the prosecution against discussing the
merits of the case outside the impeachment court.
"No other institution or body can try and decide this impeachment case. The
people do not have the authority to try and decide this impeachment case so
therefore, may I request some degree of caution on the part of everyone in
exposing evidence that ought to be presented in this impeachment court, out in
the public," Enrile said.
"We are not litigating this case among the people. We are a representative
democracy, not a direct participating democracy, we operate through
representatives of the people," he said.
Enrile also denied the motion for contempt by a private lawyer against House
prosecutors. Enrile said the lawyer had "no standing in this court. He was
neither a lawyer for the prosecution or defense."
Lawyer Jose Roy III, one of the counsels of Corona, thanked the body for
allowing them to argue their concern. But he said he was unhappy with the denial
of their motion for preliminary investigation.
"Now as you all know, the option to go to the SC is available; whether or not
we will exercise, that is a different matter. I also wish to draw everyone's
attention to the warning given by the presiding officer regarding all parties to
take caution against discussing the case in public," Roy said.
"I was relieved and gratified by that statement that these proceedings will
not be decided by the people," Roy added.
Senators Loren Legarda and Miriam Santiago were not present yesterday.
Legarda is attending to her "yaya" whom she fondly calls "nanay," who is
undergoing surgery in the United States for colon cancer. Legarda hopes to join
the proceedings next week.
Santiago was suffering from hypertension, and was under medication.
Interviewed after the hearing, Sen. Edgardo Angara expressed belief that the
Senate body had provided ample time for both panels to argue their motions.
Angara also downplayed criticisms against him and his son, Aurora Rep. Sonny
Angara, over possible conflict of interest. Rep. Angara is acting as
spokesperson for the House panel. The younger Angara said he and his father had
differed on some issues in the past.
Eduardo de los Angeles, one of Corona's counsels, made the opening statement
for the defense. De los Angeles reiterated Corona's claim earlier in the day
that he merely owned five properties.
"The pictures of the Bellagio, bloated real properties are irrelevant in this
trial," De los Angeles said.
Corona's camp disputed President Aquino's claim of the SC being a hindrance
to his administration's anti-corruption efforts.
"The nobility of President Aquino's fight against corruption cannot be
questioned," he added. "In his fight, the executive is duty bound to respect the
constitutional rights of Corona," De los Angeles argued.
"The SC is being assaulted and criticized… it is our humble submission that
the SC and the Chief Justice are not a hindrance to President Aquino's daang
matuwid," De los Angeles said. He said impeachment represents a "chilling
threat" to the judiciary. He also scored Aquino's "obsessive pursuit of his
goals which resulted in the infringement of laws."
Denial of motions lauded
House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II lauded the Senate's denial of the
motion for preliminary hearing.
"We had expected the ruling. We did not think that the Senate, even as an
impeachment court, would question and look into the regularity of the
impeachment proceedings here in the House," he told reporters.
He said Enrile's "being a brilliant and experienced lawyer, deftly steered
the proceedings toward where they should go – the trial proper."
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the dismissal of the motions for
preliminary hearing and the petition of a lawyer to cite prosecutors in contempt
"were a good start for the prosecution panel and for us, the 188 impeachers of
the Chief Justice."
"We commend the impeachment court in decisively resolving these issues," he
said.
Gonzales also said the House expects Enrile, as presiding officer of Corona's
trial, to be as liberal as possible "since the trial is not strictly a legal but
a political process."
"I think he should give the prosecution and the defense some leeway in
presenting their evidence," he said.
He said the impeachment court should accept the Coronas' real property
records, as certified by the Land Registration Authority (LRA), as evidence of
the Chief Justice's alleged ill-gotten wealth and non-disclosure of assets, and
of graft and corruption.
Proper conclusion
Enrile, meanwhile, vowed that the Senate, convened as an impeachment court,
will finish the proceedings unlike what happened in the aborted impeachment
trial of ex-President Joseph Estrada in 2001.
"I am committed and determined to see this process all the way to its
completion. Let us finish the job, for our oath demands no less from us," Enrile
said in his opening statement.
"Although the ostensible respondent in the trial before us is the Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, we cannot escape the reality that, in a larger
sense, the conduct of this trial and its outcome will necessarily have a serious
impact on the entire nation," Enrile added.
"Its success or failure to achieve the purpose for which the Constitution has
provided this mechanism as part of our system of checks and balances and of
public accountability, may spell the success or failure of our democratic
institutions, the strengthening or weakening of our sense of justice as a
people, our stability or disintegration as a nation, and the triumph or demise
of the rule of law in our land."
"As jurors, it is our obligation and responsibility to closely and diligently
examine the evidence and the facts to be presented before us, to determine
whether such evidence and facts sufficiently and convincingly support the
charges, and ultimately, to decide the fate of no less than the Chief Justice of
the Highest Court of the land, and the head of a coequal branch of our
government," he said. Paolo Romero, Jess Diaz, Edu
Punay
CJ pleads not guilty, cries conspiracy By Edu
Punay (The Philippine Star) Updated January 17, 2012 12:00 AM
[PHOTO - Lead prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas shakes hands with former SC
justice and lead counsel for the defense Serafin Cuevas during the start of the
impeachment trial at the Senate yesterday. MANNY
MARCELO]
MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday pleaded not
guilty to all the charges contained in the Articles of Impeachment filed against
him during the start of his impeachment trial at the Senate.
Corona made the manifestation through his lead counsel, former Supreme Court
(SC) justice Serafin Cuevas.
A few hours before the trial, Corona also accused three individuals of
conspiring to oust him. He did not name names, but speculation focused on
President Aquino, Transport and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas and SC Senior
Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.
"We are making on record that we made him (Corona) appear in order to show
our respect and his respect to this honorable body, and to show to the entire
world that he's not concealing anything. He's prepared to enter his defense and
convince the honorable body that he's entitled to an acquittal on the charges
against him," Cuevas told the senator-judges.
"In addition, may we also put on record that he's entering a plea of not
guilty to all the charges embodied in the complaint for impeachment," he added.
In a combative speech delivered to his supporters at the SC before going to
the Senate to attend the first hearing of his trial, Corona alleged that the
three are so determined to oust him that they even used government offices like
the Land Registration Authority (LRA) to fabricate evidence for his impeachment.
"Those three have been conspiring to remove me from my post since, most
importantly, I am a big stumbling block in their creation of a dictatorship,"
the Chief Justice said.
He did not name names, but said the first of the three "wanted to block the
distribution to the farmers of Hacienda Luisita," obviously pertaining to
Aquino, whom he earlier accused of taking issue with the high court's unanimous
ruling last November for the distribution of the 4,915.75-hectare sugar land
estate owned by the President's family in Tarlac to over 6,000 farm
worker-beneficiaries.
Corona's swift impeachment came barely a month after the SC handed down this
order.
The Chief Justice had earlier accused the President of trying to build a
dictatorship in his attempt to control the judiciary, which should be a coequal
branch of the executive.
Corona described the second one involved in the conspiracy as "the one who
easily wants to be vice president but lost in the 2010" elections.
The third, he stressed, is not far from the high court: "I am also a big
hindrance to someone who have long desired to become chief justice."
Corona was obviously referring to President Aquino's losing running mate, now
Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II, and his rival for the chief justice
post in 2010, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.
President Aquino had publicly criticized Corona and the Palace haf already
started searching for a possible replacement for the Chief Justice.
"They are fabricating and concocting lies to force me to resign as chief
magistrate," Corona alleged.
The SC chief believes the Palace had a hand in the corruption charges against
him, saying the list of his purported 45 properties came from the LRA, which is
under the Department of Justice.
He said the list was falsified, reiterating that he only owns five properties
and that his accusers fabricated documents and bloated the list to exaggerate
charges.
"Many of those in the list are not ours. They are owned by people I don't
even know; some by parents of our children-in-laws," he claimed.
Corona cited for instance the 1,750 square-meter lot in Marikina that his
wife, Cristina, inherited from her parents.
He said the lot was subdivided into seven lots upon the advice of their
broker in order to sell them at a higher price. Corona noted that the properties
were sold in 1988 to a certain Demetrio Vicente.
"This is only one property which they listed as seven different lots and the
LRA knows that we have already sold it in 1988," the chief magistrate said.
He said some of the properties being linked to him were actually owned by
certain individuals such as Felicia Castillo, Erlinda Castillo and Ismael Mathay
Jr., whom he does not know personally.
On the other hand, the other properties mentioned by the House were owned or
legally acquired by his daughter who is a successful physical therapist in the
United States; his son-in-law who is a successful doctor in Medical City; and
his in-laws.
Corona also lamented why his accusers even questioned the degree of Doctor of
Civil Law that was conferred to him by the 400-year-old University of Santo
Tomas.
"The UST is considered as the oldest university in the Philippines which is
known for its excellence and high standards, thus it is difficult to finish a
course because there are so many things that are being taught and should be
learned," Corona said.
He said that when this issue was clarified, his accusers then went back to
the issue on his properties.
He again vowed to answer the allegations without surrendering his post.
"There is no more turning back," he stressed, triggering loud applause and
cheers from a crowd of supporters. "This battle has become bigger than me and
family. Our enemies are indeed powerful and influential."
In an interview with ABS-CBN News, Corona said he would fight for his post
and defend the judiciary "until death."
"Only death. If they want to forcibly get me out of here, they would have to
kill me," he said when asked what it would take for him to resign.
Tit for tat
One of Corona's lawyers, Jose Roy III, said they see no reason why the Chief
Justice should be cited for violation of the Rules when he answered point by
point the accusations of House prosecutors that he owned properties not declared
in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN).
"It's calling the kettle black. You insult me in public, I have the right
defend myself. If somebody says I slept with you, aren't you going to go out
publicly and deny it? That's exactly what we are talking about. If you don't
want to start things like these, don't come out with false documents," Roy said.
"He answered it point by point. Is it against the law for a man to defend
himself? What do they want? They want him to just stand back while the minds of
the public are being poisoned that these are all ill-gotten wealth?" he added.
Roy branded the allegations against Corona as hogwash.
"It's untrue. We have nothing to do with the Chief Justice's statement. He
did it on his own. Personally, I am proud that he did it," the lawyer added.
Roy was also not happy with what he described as "very unprofessional manner
by which the litigation is being done."
Roy was reacting to criticisms hurled by the House panel that Corona violated
the impeachment rules when he answered point by point the allegations that he
has 45 properties under his name. – Christina
Mendez
Charges vs CJ solid - Noy By Aurea Calica (The
Philippine Star) Updated January 17, 2012 12:00 AM
[PHOTO - Chief Justice Renato Corona attend the start of the
impeachment trial with his wife Cristina at the Senate session hall yesterday.
MANNY MARCELO]
MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino expressed confidence yesterday that
the charges against Chief Justice Renato Corona were solid.
However, he refused to say whether Corona should resign or take a leave of
absence.
"My only expectation is that the Senate will look into the accusations and
judge (Corona) based on the evidence to be presented, and I think the evidence
to be presented are very strong," he told reporters in an ambush interview after
the inauguration of D'Luxe Bags Philippines, Inc. in Santa Rosa, Concepcion,
Tarlac.
Aquino said as a "free Filipino," Corona would be left to decide what he
wants to do with his life and his position.
Aquino gave assurance it would be business as usual for the government and
that he could not focus on monitoring the impeachment trial of Corona since
there were many other concerns to attend to.
He also said the criticisms against him for being against Corona were part of
democracy but noted there were also those who were forced to attend Masses,
meetings and other activities for the Chief Justice.
"So, at the end of the day, the issue here is not the personalities," he
said.
Aquino said it was important to have an impartial Supreme Court because their
decisions could no longer be appealed.
Aquino said he himself was subjected to impeachment and scrutiny from
Congress but for the longest time, no one from the SC was being made accountable
for their flip-flopping decisions.
"When are they going to be made accountable? Who will make them accountable?"
he said.
Aquino said the allegations against Corona were serious and that many of the
questions thrown at Corona remain unanswered.
He cited as example the statements of assets, liabilities and net worth
(SALN) of the members of the judiciary.
Aquino said it was very clear in the Constitution that certain government
officials must execute SALNs.
He said it was so simple to come out with one's SALN and access to it should
not be denied to the media.
"We have yet to hear Chief Justice say, here is my SALN, what else are you
looking for? But as you notice up to now it's not being released. Why is that
so?" he said.
Palace denies conspiracy
Malacañang also denied the allegations of conspiracy made by Corona.
The Chief Justice said that "three people" – apparently alluding to Aquino,
Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II and SC Senior Associate Justice Antonio
Carpio – were conniving to oust .him.
Corona said Aquino did not want the Hacienda Luisita owned by his family to
be distributed, while Roxas, running mate of the President, had filed a protest
before the SC as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, and Carpio was reportedly next
in line to become chief justice.
But presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said "the man on the dock is the
Chief Justice."
"He is there, impeached and undergoing trial, because of his behavior," he
said.
"He has no one to blame for this but himself. For the Chief Justice to allege
conspiracy is simply a desperate ploy to deflect attention from the subject at
hand: himself."
Lacierda said Corona's conspiracy theory ignored reality and plain facts.
"The Department of Agrarian Reform has categorically stated that the
administration has pushed for, and argued, before the Supreme Court, the
distribution of land to tenants in Hacienda Luisita," he said.
"His other allegations, concerning the President's running mate and an
associate justice of the Supreme Court, go beyond being merely undignified –
they are slanderous attacks for the purpose of deflecting attention. No chief
justice has ever demeaned himself by the gutter language he used this morning.
"The historic trial of the Chief Justice has begun. We call on all citizens
to follow the proceedings, as the Senate conducts its duty to hear and weigh the
evidence. The trial will bring daylight where there used to be darkness:
shedding light on actions and actuations of the Chief Justice. The truth will
come out. We believe that the truth will set the judiciary free."
Malacañang has been saying that Corona had been protecting former President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in his SC decisions.
Roxas, in a statement released by the Palace, also said Corona should not
weave stories and just answer the issues against him during the impeachment
trial.
"This trial is about the very serious offenses against our people for
betrayal of public trust," Roxas said.
"He (Corona) should no longer author comics stories and fiction for alleged
conspiracy. He should face the truth and his conscience.
"(Corona) should no longer implicate other people."
Lacierda also said they were just continuing the fight for transparency and
accountability that the President promised.
"In 2010, the President's campaign against corruption obtained 42.08 percent
of the vote – the largest plurality under the 1987 Constitution. Since then, an
overwhelming majority (based on surveys) of Filipinos have adopted and endorsed
the President's efforts to fight corruption and ensure accountability," he said.
"No one should doubt how stubborn the enemies of transparency, honesty, and
good governance are. The defense of the Chief Justice, whose lawyers argue that
their rules allow justices to merely submit their SALNs to the clerk of court,
is paper-thin and patently unconstitutional. What are they trying to say? Where
the Constitution in Article XI Section 17 mandates that certain officials –
including the entire Supreme Court – disclose their SALNs to the public, the
Supreme Court says that they comply by giving their SALNs to the clerk of court.
This is tantamount to amending the Constitution – by no stretch of the
imagination can the clerk of court, an employee subservient and beholden to the
justices, be considered 'the public'."
Lacierda said the selective interpretation of the law had also resulted in a
selective interpretation of past cases decided in the SC.
"Mentioning Stonehill versus Diokno in defense of the Chief Justice puts
historical facts on their head," he said. "What happened then was precisely what
happened in 2011: Harry Stonehill was deported upon orders of (then) President
Diosdado Macapagal, to prevent Stonehill from testifying before Congress or the
courts and divulging embarrassing information. In 2011, Chief Justice Corona
maneuvered to enable Mrs. Arroyo to attempt her 'Great Escape,' allowing her to
escape accountability by potentially extending her absence to fall under the
prescriptive period for crimes: allowing her to escape accountability.
"The President has always said that the fight for accountability and good
governance will put the majority of the Filipino people against the few who have
crimes to conceal."
High ratings
In a statement entitled "An Overwhelming Majority for Transparency," Lacierda
enumerated the several high ratings Aquino attained in the course of his
presidency, which had a record high recently of "74 percent trust ratings."
Following Aquino's assumption to office in June 2010, an "overwhelming
majority of Filipinos have adopted and endorsed the President's efforts to fight
corruption and ensure accountability."
Lacierda made use of the "72 percent performance ratings" as conducted by
Pulse Asia in November 2011 as well as the "71 percent public satisfaction"
survey held by the Social Weather Stations in December 2011.
Lacierda scored the refusal of Corona to make public his SALN – which all
Supreme Court justices have done since 1989 and which no less than the
Constitution demands.
All SC justices, past and present – save for pro-Aquino magistrates Antonio
Carpio and Ma. Lourdes Sereno – have not made their SALNs public since then, and
these have been kept by the clerk of court of each SC leadership, from the late
Marcelo Fernan to Corona. –With Delon Porcalla, Czerina
Valencia
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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