Mongaya: Corona 8

Sunday, February 12, 2012

EIGHT Supreme Court (SC) justices voted for a temporary restraining order on the opening of dollar bank accounts of Chief Justice Renato Corona by the Senate impeachment court.

After the opening of peso accounts in two banks that showed several millions that Chief Justice Corona failed to report in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs), the impeachment court is now moving to open the dollar accounts.

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But eight Corona allies at the SC came to the rescue. Asserting the SC’s power to interpret the country’s Constitution and laws, they stopped the impeachment court from looking into more hidden millions of the chief justice.

Expect all corrupt government officials to be closely watching and secretly planning to transfer their ill-gotten wealth to dollar accounts.

Curiously, the Corona-led SC was very strict against a casual employee and a former mayor of Naga, Cebu. They opted for conviction because of SALN discrepancies.

In the case of Chief Corona however, the SC majority has gone lenient and stepped on our senator-jurors who have been telling the world that the Constitution bestowed on the Senate the sole power to try impeachment cases.

Will our senator-jurors eat their words spoken live on television?

Some say that if the senator-jurors go against the TRO, it will provoke a constitutional crisis. The way I see it, the Corona 8 are the ones seeking a crisis.

I believe triggering a crisis is part of a bigger gambit not just to get Corona off the hook. An indicator is how a pro-Corona rally became an anti-Aquino rally.

Pro-Corona and pro-GMA forces want to stop President Aquino and his government from uncovering truths about multi-billion corruption of the past administration. They are now pushing the limits in making Aquino the issue.

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If Corona and GMA get their way, what will happen to efforts to right wrongs of the recent past? For instance, the lamppost issue publicly lynched and convicted sacrificial lambs to protect national officials close to Malacañang at that time.

As I wrote in an earlier column, this happened when GMA’s hatchet woman Merceditas Gutierrez reigned as ombudsman. And the Gutierrez operator in the Visayas was assistant ombudsman Virgie Palanca-Santiago.

The grapevine at the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman is rife with talks at how Visayas Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol was sidelined during Merci’s watch. Though the designation “assistant ombudsman” is not even in the plantilla, Gutierrez favored Santiago. This was the time when Santiago went all out against the small fry on the lamppost issue.

With Merci out as ombudsman, those who felt victimized in Cebu (those who are alive because two died without seeing the possibility of justice) and even Iloilo have filed cases against Santiago at the ombudsman’s office. I believe it would only be fair for the victims that Santiago be placed under preventive suspension.

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Authorities have already identified the two who triggered the tsunami panic in Cebu. Granting that their motive was to evacuate people from the coastal areas, what they did was stupid.
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Are Liberals in Cebu breaking up? When the rift between Rep. Tomas Osmeña and Mayor Mike Rama erupted into the open, I expected that this would affect the local Liberal Party.

This expectation was bolstered by President Aquino’s seeming unconcern for consolidating his Liberal allies. Just imagine President Aquino rubbing elbows with Gov. Gwen Garcia at the KSPC plant in Naga with Liberal leaders like Junjun Davide nowhere in sight.

Thus, I thought it inevitable for local rifts to come to the fore and it did.

First, former senator John Osmeña announced he is not supporting Junjun Davide as a candidate for governor. Sonny O says Davide is not a strong leader and prefers the formation of a new alliance. I think this is a move to reassert his political leadership in Cebu province. We all know Davide follows Tom’s lead.

Second, the unity between Congressman Osmeña and LP chairman Mar Roxas is disintegrating because of Mayor Rama’s LP membership. Apparently, Osmeña wants Rama out, but Roxas has not acted on it.

With still over a year before the 2013 midterm elections, local and national politicians are now placed in a difficult situation. As Valenzuela Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian–who is vying for a senatorial seat–confided during a recent event attended by some 225 board members in the country, “maraming naiipit.”

Asked about my assessment on who is stronger between the two, I answered this way. As of today, Congressman Osmeña is far stronger. He has the support of former Rep. Raul del Mar in Cebu city’s north district, who still has no challenger so far. In the south district, all contenders are courting Congressman Osmeña’s blessings. But the situation is fluid. It might change as 2013 nears.

(inbetweencolumns.wordpress.com)