CAN'T IMAGINE CORONA GETTING ACQUITTED
[PHOTO - President Benigno
Aquino III during an interview with InterAksyon in Malacanang. (photo by Bernard Testa,
InterAksyon.com)]
MANILA,
MARCH 14, 2012 (INTERAKSYON.COM)
InterAksyon.com - Just a few days
before the resumption of the impeachment trial against Chief Justice Renato
Corona, President Aquino is confident of a conviction.
In fact, the chief executive told InterAksyon.com, he finds it
"hard to imagine" how else the process can conclude.
The President, in a free-wheeling interview with InterAksyon.com on Tuesday,
expressed satisfaction and even some sense of fulfillment over how the
impeachment process has so far shown the Philippine democratic institutions at
work.
"I think it's there. I think part of the aim is also to educate the people.
And also to have the check and balance," the President said in Malacañang.
Asked, however, how happy about the process he would remain "should it not
end with the result (he) wants," Aquino replied: "I find it hard to imagine not
to get the result, that as you said, I would want."
On Tuesday, on the eve of the Wednesday morning media blitz by Chief Justice
Corona, the President laid out his basis for seeing a guilty verdict at the end
of whole trial, which resumes on Monday with the defense panel's turn to present
their witnesses.
He told InterAksyon.com, "Perhaps I am not tutored in the Law but I think I
have very good grades in English. The copy of the Constitution I have is in
English. I was also supposed to be good in Tagalog, and I read the same in
Tagalog, very, very clear.
"Article 11, Section 17. Oo tama 17, of Article 11. 11 is public
accountability, accountability of public officers. (It) says: 'A public officer
or employee shall, upon assumption of office and as often thereafter as may be
required by law, submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities, and
net worth. In the case of the President, the Vice-President, the Members of the
Cabinet, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Commissions and
other constitutional offices, and officers of the armed forces with general or
flag rank, the declaration shall be disclosed to the public in the manner
provided by law.'
"So, (nothing there says), you can go to the judiciary also. Doesn't say
there that the Supreme Court is authorized to withhold information with regards
to the SALN.
"Now, besides that. How about (his) cash position na lang? Three (million
pesos) versus 30 (million pesos)," the President said, referring to what
prosecutors have submitted to illustrate a discrepancy in what Corona had
declared as cash in his end-2010 SALN, and what bank records suggest he actually
had as of that date. "You swear under oath as to the truthfulness of the
statement. Then you're gonna tell me he gets acquitted? I think you can imagine
how difficult it is for me to imagine such a situation."
'We went through the process'
Beyond expressing confidence in achieving a conviction, the President
defended the very process and steps that had been taken to take Corona this far
in the impeachment trial.
He dismissed criticism that his and his allies' dogged campaign to impeach
the Chief Justice betrayed a "dictatorial" streak in him. The President stressed
that he had patiently gone through every legal step in the country's democratic
processes in order to get this far with Corona, and for that matter, in the
government's attempt to prosecute former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Retraces steps
He retraced the meticulous steps taken by government in both the cases of
Corona, whose lawyers will present evidence on March 12 at the impeachment
court; and of Mrs. Arroyo, who is under "hospital arrest" at the Veterans
Memorial Medical Center on a charge of electoral sabotage in connection with the
alleged 2007 poll fraud.
Early on in his term, Mr. Aquino recalled he issued Memorandum Circular No. 1
establishing a Truth Commission, which the Corona-led Supreme Court jettisoned
for being unconstitutional.
"We went through a process. We tried to study the problem, di ba,formally,
through the truth commission and see how….parang [it seemed] the underlying
question was how this Constitution, with its supposed checks and balances, was
either used, abused, not used---that allowed all of the excesses in the past.
They said hindi puede. Napaka specific daw. Parang walang equal protection
clause," Mr. Aquino recalled, referring to the legal opinion that the proposed
Truth Commission was too focused specifically on just one administration[Arroyo]
as to violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
"So that [Memorandum Circular Number 1 creating the Truth Commission] got
thrown out. So we went through another process. . . .So [the] process is look
for the evidence. Evidence, witnesses, build up the case, go through the
preliminary investigation phase, file the necessary action in court. And we got
criticized for taking too long to bring these charges on. Before [they said]
we're taking too long, now I'm dictatorial," Mr. Aquino said, reacting to
observations that while touting democracy he has short-circuited due process in
the Arroyo and Corona cases.
Turning pensive, his hand reaching out once more for the Constitution on a
side table, he asked, "kelan ba tayo nagkaroon ng [when did we have a]
dictatorship? Martial law," and then recalled: "I do not know if I am mistaken
but if memory serves me right, everybody in the judiciary was asked to tender
their resignation, right? [And then it was] effective upon acceptance."
Furthermore, he said, there were many Supreme Court decisions that ruled a
critical issue raised to the SC as "a political question, we will not
interfere."
That, he stressed, is how a dictatorship does its thing with the court. Not
this administration.
Then he tossed back the question to InterAksyon.com. "But what would you do
in my position?" And he cited the Corona-led court's temporary restraining order
on the Justice Department's watch list order on the Arroyos as the "trigger"
that solidified the resolve to impeach Corona.
When the MC No. 1 on the Truth Commission was thrown out, he said, the
government reviewed the cases of alleged wrongdoing under Mrs. Arroyo, and the
2004 election fraud was reviewed by a joint Comelec-Department of Justice panel
that subsequently recommended the filing of the charges against the former
president, now a representative of the second district of Pampanga.
"In this case [there was a case filed of] electoral fraud at the DOJ. What
was the process? Preliminary investigation, there's an affidavit of complaint,
then a counteraffidavit to refute the complaint."
The panel of prosecutors was to weigh the affidavit and counteraffidavit, but
the latter was never filed. "We have processes, there are deadlines."
It was apparent, Mr. Aquino said, in every step taken by the camp of Rep.
Arroyo and of Chief Justice Corona that she would be given the leeway to leave
the country, given what Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had earlier described as
the dubious details of her travel plans: she was supposedly very ill and in
urgent need of medical treatment not available in the country, yet had a
five-country itinerary that would have taxed her body and included mostly
countries where the Philippines has no extradition treaty.
The government lawyers also had an eye toward the prescription period for the
"serial poll fraud," alluding to the 2007 case.
Take note, Aquino said, that Mrs. Arroyo had even gone scot-free from the
allegations she cheated Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 presidential elections. Poe
died six months later, the complaint dying with him.
It was clear, Mr. Aquino recalled, that Mrs. Arroyo, with the obvious help of
her former chief aide Corona, would use every possible recourse in the legal
process to derail the cases against her.
The most obvious of these was Chief Justice Corona's alleged maneuvers to
grant Arroyo the temporary restraining order she sought against the watch-list
order issued by the DOJ to prevent her travel abroad.
"Those who are not giving justice to the country [are] who we are up against.
And that just doesn't mean Chief Justice Corona," Aquino said.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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