Corona's camp ‘behind’ impeachment bid vs Aquino

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

THE signatories of the complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona are accusing the defense team of plotting the impeachment of President Benigno Aquino III as it is "raring for a fishing expedition."

In a statement released Wednesday by the "Movement 188" -- the group comprising the 188 lawmaker-signatories to the articles of impeachment against Corona -- it said that Corona's camp "is sinking so fast that it is even clutching at a stillborn impeachment complaint just to float, in the hope of staging a fishing expedition -- at the expense of President Aquino -- just to draw national attention away from a month-long Senate impeachment trial."

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

It was earlier reported that Danilo Lihaylihay, president of the Philippine Association of Revenue Informers, implicated Aquino in the alleged sale of a government lot in Baguio City to a giant mall developer.

Lihaylihay wrote House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez to study the complaint and endorse it to the House of Representatives. He said Aquino committed "massive tax evasion, fraud and graft and corrupt practices, through conspiracy and connivance" for the sale of a 3.4-hectare property to SM Investments Corporation.

To recall, Lihaylihay was one of the petitioners in the separate motions filed last December before the Supreme Court to stop the Senate sitting as an impeachment court from conducting trial.

"The Corona camp is now resorting to out-of-court tactics to divert national attention from the CJ's (Corona) litany of sins that makes him no longer morally fit to remain in office," the group said.

Movement 188 stressed that the impeachment complaint against Aquino is "dead from the start" considering that the alleged anomalous sale took place two decades ago.

Full payment for the lot was completed in 1997 but the Deed of Sale was executed only in 2011 because the settlement of right-of-way issues involving a portion of this property took so long, Suarez said.

"If Lihalihay fancies himself to be an expert on land valuation, he would make better use of his time by examining how the Chief Justice had repetitively lied under oath in his SALNs in undervaluing his properties, the aggregate real and total value of which is disproportionate to his and his wife's combined legal income," Movement 188 added.

In a press conference, Suarez admitted that they were unsure if the supposed flaws in the transaction constitute an impeachable offense.

Siguijor Representative Orlando Fua added the minority bloc will also take into consideration the legislative work that may be further delayed with another Senate impeachment trial.

"If we continue impeaching impeachable officials, there will be no work in the Senate, no work in the House and everybody is looking at the impeachment trial...probably it will paralyze the movement of this institution," Fua said. (Sunnex)