HOUSE-TO-HOUSE DRIVE / 'MOVEMENT 188'
MANILA, FEBRUARY 28, 2012 (MANILA STANDARD) by Christine F. Herrera
and Rey E. Requejo - THE Palace and its allies in the House vowed Sunday to
bring the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona to the public
through a province-to-province and house-to-house campaign.
After suffering several setbacks at the trial last week, the
pro-administration lawmakers said President Benigno Aquino III would continue
his slide presentations against Corona. The 188 lawmakers who signed the
impeachment complaint against him would launch a house-to-house information
drive.
The campaign was meant to counter the findings of a recent survey by pollster
Pedro Laylo Jr. showing that 86 percent of the Filipinos Laylo polled said they
would respect the Senate impeachment court's verdict, and that only 8 percent
would join protest rallies if the magistrate were acquitted, said Eastern Samar
Rep. Ben Evardone who leads the so-called 188 Movement.
He said the campaign would bring the evidence to the public after the Senate
last week barred several prosecution witnesses because they would testify on
matters not covered by the articles of impeachment filed by the House
prosecutors.
[PHOTO - Pedro "Junie" Laylo Jr. Founder & Principal Pollster at
Laylo Research Strategies Location Philippines Industry Research]
Corona's lawyers on Sunday said they would object to the testimony of
Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno even if she volunteered to testify or
agree to answer written interrogatories, and because that would touch on
confidential matters covered by judicial privilege which only the Supreme Court
could waive.
During the trial last week, the prosecutors dropped three of four allegations
on Article 3 over their lack of evidence and witnesses. They also asked the
Senate impeachment court to reconsider its decision to bar testimony on perks,
including free trips, that the chief justice and his wife were alleged to have
enjoyed from Philippine Airlines while a case involving the company was still
pending before the Supreme Court.
Senate President and presiding judge Juan Ponce Enrile rejected the evidence
because the House prosecution did not allege bribery in its articles of
impeachment.
In launching their campaign, the 188 lawmakers said they wanted to "educate,
not agitate" the public.
"The Laylo survey shows the people would respect the Senate decision. Who are
we to contradict that if that is the sentiment of our constituents?" Evardone
told the Manila Standard.
"Our task is to educate, not agitate the public. We need to inform them that
this impeachment has no other motive than to make the erring officials
accountable for their illegal deeds." he said.
Laylo Research Strategies reported that its survey of 1,500 Filipino adults
conducted between Jan. 28 and Feb. 6 showed that the public was not all that
interested in the impeachment trial. The survey had a margin of error of plus or
minus 2.6 percent.
About 43 percent of the respondents said they "rarely bother" with the Corona
trial, while 33 percent sometimes followed the news about it. Only a fourth of
the respondents were paying close attention to it.
Of the respondents' awareness of the trial, Evardone said 89 percent said
they got their news about the impeachment trial from television. Only 22 percent
got their news from radio, while 9 percent said they got it from the discussions
about the trial.
Of the eight articles of impeachment, only Article 7 — that Corona showed
partiality toward former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
— was considered credible by 50 percent of the respondents.
At least 32 percent of the respondents believed Corona's assertion that the
Palace was targeting him because of the Supreme Court's decision ordering the
distribution to farmers of 4,915 hectares in Hacienda Luisita, which is owned by
President Aquino's family.
Although several television stations were broadcasting the trial, only 7
percent were watching the live telecasts, the survey said.
"I believe only those who have television sets at home in Metro Manila and
urban centers watch the trial, so we thought of coming up with talking points to
update our constituents in the provinces nationwide," Evardone said.
But prosecutor and Akbayan Rep. Arlene Kaka Bag-ao (photo at
left) said the people could not make intelligent decisions because they had
not seen the evidence that the prosecution had against Corona after the Senate
impeachment court barred them from presenting witnesses and evidence.
"Where we failed in presenting to the Senate impeachment court, we are
prepared to present the evidence on Articles 2, 3 and 7 to the people," Bag-ao
told the Manila Standard.
"The people have the right to know the truth."
Bag-ao said the prosecutors would show records of Corona's bank acounts, even
if those were barred in the impeachment trial because revealing the dollar
accounts would violate the Foreign Currency Deposit Act, while the information
on the peso accounts was based on illegally obtained documents.
Enrile said the impeachment court would await the decision of the Supreme
Court on the bank records.
The defense lawyers on Sunday said Corona would make "the appropriate
objection" if Sereno, President Aquino's first appointee to the high court, took
the witness stand or answered written questions from the Senate.
Their statement came after Senator-Judge Antoino Trillanes IV, an
administration ally, asked the court to invite Sereno to either testify or
answer written interrogatories. The Senate was set to decide the question in a
caucus Monday morning.
EARLIER REPORT FROM THE NEGROS DAILY
BULLETIN
Movement 188 Formed: ALBEE LEADS THE MOVE TO OUST CJ CORONA
Submitted by Danny Dangcalan on Tue, 01/24/2012 - 14:13
Third District Rep. Albee Benitez (photo at right) is one of
the seven Negros Occ. congressmen leading the "Movement 188," a newly formed
group that aims to help push the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona by
the Senate impeachment court.
Formed last Sunday, "Movement 188" is composed of 188 lawmakers who signed
the Articles of Impeachment last December, 2011.
"Our resolution is neither an attack on the justices nor on the judiciary
itself. We have resorted to this constitutional process precisely to strengthen
our judicial system by ridding it of the malignancy that has corrupted the very
essence of equality and fairness in the High Court," the group said in a
statement.
Leading the Movement 188 aside from Benitez are Eastern Samar Rep. Ben
Evardone, An Waray party-list Rep. Florencio Noel, Compostela Valley Rep.
Maricar Apsay, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, Biliran Rep. Roger Espina, and Misamis
Occidental Rep. Leo Loreto Ocampos.
The congressmen maintained that they signed the impeachment resolution
"freely and resolutely, on the strength of our collective conviction that the
ouster of the Chief Justice through the legal remedy provided in the
Constitution will clear one major roadblock in the `daang matuwid' reform
agenda of the Aquino administration."
In an interview last month, Benitez denied claims that some of the
congressmen who signed the Articles of Impeachment had only signed the papers
without being able to read its contents. When a majority caucus was called at
the Andaya Hall of the House of Representatives, a PowerPoint presentation on
the Articles of Impeachment was made, he said.
He added that a copy of the Articles of Impeachment was also furnished to all
those who attended the majority caucus. For his part, he said, he had thoroughly
read the Articles of Impeachment before signing it.
[PHOTO - Members of the so-called Philippine "elite" are calling on CJ
Corona to step down before his impeachment trial even begins. They are so
convinced that Corona is "guilty" .]
Members of the Movement 188 believed that last week's trial bared that "the
evidence of the prosecution panel showed that he (Corona) lied, owned ill-gotten
wealth and is no longer morally fit to serve the high tribunal."
In their statement, the group described the Corona defense lawyers as already
panicking over the release of his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth
(SALN).
"The diversionary moves by the Corona camp and its allies at the end of Week
One of the trial show that they are already running scared and hell-bent on
preventing the whole truth from coming out, more so now that the House
prosecutors are set to present more authentic documents and more reliable
witnesses on the second week," the group said.
The Movement 188 added that the scare ploys include an urgent motion to
inhibit certain senator-judges from the trial, and a temporary restraining order
to stop the Senate from proceeding with the trial.
"The slew of evidence presented and testimonies made during the Thursday
session were only the tip of the iceberg as our House prosecutor-colleagues
present more authentic witnesses and official documents to establish that the
Chief Justice committed perjury in his annual SALN declarations, which proves
betrayal of public trust and warrants immediate eviction from the High Court and
permanent disqualification from holding public office," the group added in a
statement.
Corona's annual SALN declarations during his incumbency as member
and, later, as head of the Supreme Court, were surrendered last Thursday by the
tribunal's clerk of court Enriqueta Vidal after much resistance from the defense
panel.
The group also said the documents show that Corona's declared net worth had
mysteriously jumped from P14 million in 2002 to P22 million in 2010, which was
not commensurate to his combined legal income as a public servant over that
eight-year period.
The documents presented by registrars Randy Rutaquio, Carlo Alcantara and
Sedfrey Garcia of Taguig, Quezon and Marikina cities bared, meanwhile, that
Corona had not accurately declared in his SALNs a host of properties belonging
to him or members of his family: condominium units and parking lots at the
Bellagio Tower, McKinley Hill and Bonifacio Ridge, all in Global City in Taguig;
and condos or other assets at La Vista Subdivision, Katipunan Avenue, One
Burgundy and other parts of Quezon and Marikina cities, they added.
"This explains all the diversionary ploys and scare tactics that the Corona
camp and its allies have been resorting to this early in the trial to delay the
proceedings and prevent the whole truth from coming out," the Movement said.
Benitez had also earlier said, he believes that Corona was biased on several
of his court decisions. He said this can be gleaned from the decisions made by
the SC, for instance, on the issue of cityhood of 16 municipalities where it
flip-flopped four times.
Benitez also said they were told beforehand that if they think Corona is
biased on his court decisions, they can sign the Articles of Impeachment, but if
they believe that he is not biased, they should not sign it.
He also refuted rumors saying that those who signed the impeachment did so
for the release of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or 'pork
barrel.'
Asked if he thinks Corona should resign, Benitez said, "It's up to him,"
adding that if Corona resigns, it will save them from making a painful decision
against him.* (DBDangcalan/with reports from The Philippine
Star)
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
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