Corona: Impeachment trial meant to scare justices

Sunday, February 12, 2012

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.

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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.

"(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)