Renato Corona, the 23rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, was impeached on December 12, 2011. Corona was the third official, after former President Joseph Estrada in 2000 and Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez in March 2011, to be impeached by the House of Representatives.[1]
The Senate, convened as an impeachment court, began the trial on January 16, 2012. This was the second impeachment trial in the history of the Philippines, as Gutierrez had resigned prior to the start of her trial. On May 29, 2012, Corona was found guilty of Article II of the Articles of Impeachment filed against him pertaining to his failure to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth.[2]
The Corona impeachment: A year after
SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Bobit S. Avila (The Philippine Star) | Updated May 30, 2013 - 12:00am
It’s been a year since the 23 Senators removed a sitting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the person of Renato Corona. But what has this nation learned from that divisive event in our nation’s history? For one, the Filipino still elected into office many public officials whom we know still dare to flaunt their wealth, taken from monies while they were in power, despite the fact that they were not totally honest in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities & Net Worth (SALN). That’s money they got from taxpayers. Clearly the sovereign will of the people did not show up in the vote… rather it was the sovereign will of the Comelec that surfaced.
In my book, the moment CJ Corona was impeached by the House of Representatives in lightning quick fashion, I already had a hunch that CJ Corona’s case was doomed from the start. The rest was mere “palabas” or a reality show courtesy of national TV networks that showed the impeachment trial like it was just another Filipino telenovela.
But today, the sequel to this telenovela continues with the case of the wife of Sen. Lito Lapid who was arrested in the US for money laundering and now, even Sen. Loren Legarda herself is under hot water because of the revelation that she had an expensive New York condo… which some people even suggested that she undervalued. How did she gain so much wealth?
Yet, Sen. Legarda was still reelected as Senator…. So the question is, can we say that the Filipino people have forgiven her for this issue or perhaps the news about this case did not trickle down to the masses? Whatever it is, Sen. Legarda’s New York condo is a clear proof of Sen. Miriam Santiago’s essay in Tagalog, “Masarap talaga maging Senador.”
Indeed our legislators earn (or steal) millions of pesos because of our stupid system called pork barrel, which has different names but the same pork. I dare say that if we remove the pork barrel, the 2016 Presidential elections will have new names and players and if you believe it…it would mean the end of political dynasties that breed on the pork barrel.
Finally the impeachment of CJ Corona also proves that the Philippine Constitution badly needs changes for political and social reforms. Reforms can only happen if we call for Charter changes (Cha-cha). But we all know that for as long as President Aquino is President, we cannot see any such reforms in the last three years of his presidency.
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Among the reforms that I’ve lined up aside from the extinction of the pork barrel is the total overhaul of the Comelec to break it apart and make it into separate and independent regional Commissions on Elections; the Supreme Court Chief Justice to be chosen by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) and the President’s signature to be just ministerial; that a separate and independent regional or state commission be created to verify the SALNs of public officers, where these so-called public servants would have to undergo scrutiny before this panel before they can take their oath of office.
Now that the dust has settled, the bottom line why CJ Corona was forcibly removed from office is simply an act of revenge by President Aquino for his role in the Supreme Court’s adjudicating the Hacienda Luisita in favor of the poor farmers, who until today have not yet gotten their own piece of land. Mind you, these are the people that P-Noy vowed to uplift with his “Kung Walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap” election slogan. If these people are still poor it is due to the fact that corruption still reigns under the “Daang Matuwid”. Social injustice still reigns! It just makes you wonder what P-Noy would be saying in his State of the Nation (SONA) next month.
* * *
It’s nearly three years into the Aquino Presidency and that front-page report in the Philippine STAR last Tuesday gives you an idea of how President Aquino has under-performed when 4.6 million Filipino youths still cannot go to school during the opening of classes, not because they don’t want to go to school, but rather because the shortage of classrooms have only worsened under his watch.
Again we ask the President, whatever happened to all those promises that under Daan Matuwid this perennial problem would finally be solved under his regime? Surely by now, President Aquino knows that this problem can be solved with money. With the Legislature under the President’s pocket (which is why he impeached CJ Corona), I’m still scratching my head why millions of our Filipino kids cannot go to school.
By denying these children a chance to go to school, they have doomed these kids to either a life of crime or of finding jobs abroad as an overseas Filipino worker (OFW). I just saw thousands of them when we were in Hong Kong last Sunday. And while I took pity on our fellow Filipinos, I cannot say this for the Aquino regime, who has no heart for the poor Filipinos.\\\
CHIEF Justice Renato Corona said his own impeachment trial is meant to instill a "chilling effect" on justices of the Supreme Court in order to bend their decisions in favor of Malacañang.
Speaking at the Ateneo Law School in Rockwell Center, Makati over the weekend, Corona said he will continue to fight for what he believed in even if it meant losing everything he worked for.
The embattled chief magistrate also took a swipe at President Benigno Aquino III, saying his impeachment trial before the Senate is all about politics and protecting Aquino’s interests.
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"(T)his whole sordid affair has all been about politics from beginning to end. It is about Hacienda Luisita: the P10 billion compensation which the President's family reportedly wants for the land that was simply lent to them by the government; the need to terrorize and instill a chilling effect on the Justices of the Supreme Court to be able to bend their decisions in favor of the Malacañang tenant…," he said.
Corona said his detractors also saw the need to "nullify the constitutional election of the sitting Vice-President; (and) the need to appoint a new Chief Justice who will deliver anything and everything the President wants."
This after House deputy chief prosecutor, Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo Fariñas called for the impeachment of the eight SC justices who had voted to grant the temporary restraining order sought by PSBank to stop the Senate impeachment court from compelling it to disclose the foreign currency deposits of Corona. Farinas accused the magistrates of protecting Corona.
The court, however, is yet to rule on Corona's petition seeking to stop the impeachment trial in the Senate.
But recent events, said Corona, have shown that the country is teetering towards a one-man rule, "where the rule of law is undermined and the system of government, particularly the principle and mechanism of checks and balances, is destroyed."
He said many of his constitutional rights have been violated, with the BIR launching a concurrent tax investigation of his entire family, including his son-in-law, Constantino Castillo, and being vilified in the media.
“Obviously, taxpayer’s money is being used to destroy us and such ruthlessness and malice the likes of which I have never seen in my entire life. And for what?” he said.
“I want to tell you that I have nothing to gain but everything to lose in this fight. But I will have proven true to myself. I thank God for this one great opportunity of a lifetime to show that, in this world, there are still men who are willing to lose everything, including their lives, for what they believe in,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines has joined calls for the Senate to respect the TRO issued by the high court on the examination of the dollar bank accounts of Corona.
“The SC’s power of judicial review over acts of Congress applies whether the Senate is acting as legislature or impeachment court. The Constitution has not made any distinction,” said IBP through lawyer Dennis Habawel, spokesman and Northern Luzon governor.
Habawel’s statement echoed that of constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, who said the SC is duly authorized by the constitution to act as final arbiter of all legal disputes and as interpreter of the law.
Thus, Habawel said, the IBP took exceptions to the threat of Farinas to initiate impeachment proceedings against the eight SC justices who voted for the issuance of TRO – Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Arturo Brion, Roberto Abad, Jose Perez, Lucas Bersamin, Martin Villarama, Bienvenido Reyes and Jose Catral-Mendoza.
The group said such threat “in effect shows that Congress wants to remove from the SC the power of judicial review over acts of Congress.”
“The threat from a prosecutor to impeach the eight justices for issuing a TRO on the disclosure of CJ’s dollar accounts exemplifies IBP’s stand that the separation of powers doctrine and the judiciary’s independence are undermined whenever Congress impeaches a justice based on a collegial decision that it does not agree with… The Constitution did not give Congress the power of impeachment so it could violate the doctrines of separation of power and the bill of rights,” IBP stated. (JCV/Sunnex)