Editorial
By Perry Diaz
Global Balita
Threatening to seek Supreme Court intervention should the Senate impeachment court convict Chief Justice Renato Corona later today or tomorrow, Corona’s lead defense counsel, retired Justice Serafin Cuevas, is sowing fear among the senator-judges hoping that it would influence at least eight of them to vote for acquittal.
In a text message to the media, Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III, one of the prosecution spokesmen, reportedly said: “With all due respect to Justice Cuevas, it would seem his statements may be considered as ‘indirectly tampering with the jury.’ By going to the SC after conviction, the defense panel would want to take the country into a constitutional crisis.” Another prosecution spokesman, Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, said that Corona knew full well that he was practically “trifling with the Constitution” because it would put the Senate and the High Court on a collision course.
Damning evidence
Evidently, Cuevas saw Corona’s defense crumble in the aftermath of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales’ damning testimony last May 14, where she presented a 17-page report generated by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), which detailed 705 transactions involving 82 dollar deposit accounts in nine branches of five banks in Metro Manila. Clearly, Carpio-Morales’ testimony has irreparably damaged Corona’s defense.
Ironically, Carpio-Morales was subpoenaed as a defense witness, which was Corona’s pre-condition to testify in his own defense. It was a gambit Corona played to debunk Carpio-Morales’ allegation that he had $10 million deposited in his dollar deposit accounts. Little did Corona – and his defense team – realize that Carpio-Morales had done her homework digging into Corona’s “secret” dollar deposit accounts. During her testimony, she used a PowerPoint presentation, which showed the movement of money in and out of his bank accounts.
Corona’s testimony
During his testimony last May 22, Corona admitted to having four dollar deposit accounts and three peso deposit accounts. And on his second and last day of testimony on May 25, Corona said that his dollar deposits total $2.4 million and his peso deposits amount to P80.7 million.
The issue is why didn’t Corona declare and report these bank deposits in violation of the Constitution, which requires all public officials to declare and report all their assets in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and net Worth (SALN)? This is the gist of Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment. And this is where Corona would make his last stand.
Conviction
Should the Senate impeachment court convict Corona, the question is: Does the Supreme Court have the authority to intervene – and rule against a conviction – after the Senate has meted out a verdict of “guilty”?
Notwithstanding the fact that Article XI, Section 1 of the Constitution clearly states: “the Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment,” nothing – and nobody — could stop or prevent the Supreme Court from intervening. They are the highest tribunal of the land and they could pretty much do whatever they want to do to interpret – or even tamper with — the Constitution. However, how can the Supreme Court implement an adverse ruling vis-à-vis a “guilty” verdict against Corona?
Intervention
Would the Senate abide by a Supreme Court ruling nullifying Corona’s conviction? If the Presiding Officer and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had his way, he would ignore a Supreme Court intervention. And it would be likely that a majority of the senator-judges would agree with his him.
In such an event, would the Supreme Court cite the entire Senate for contempt? If so, would the High Court send its sheriffs to arrest all the senators and jail them for contempt?
And how about Corona? What is he going to do to keep his job?
In a few hours, the prosecution and defense teams are going to present their closing arguments. They’re given one hour each. And after that, the senator-judges will cast their votes or if time doesn’t permit, tomorrow.
A centavo-worth of commentary
If Corona gets convicted and the Supreme Court intervenes on his behalf by voiding the conviction, if Enrile and the Senate thus abdicate their constitutional responsibility and authority and subordinate their authority to that Arroyo Supreme Court, this will be tantamount to a monumental failure of impeachment as a check-and-balance instrument in a democracy.
A food for thought:
If the Supreme Court can intervene, so does the Executive Branch of PNoy by declaring Martial Law. Perhaps here PNoy can avail himself of legal leeway to jail (rapido at mabilis) Corona, Arroyo, Senator Lapid (more corrupt than Corona in ill-gotten wealth, Ligot, Bolante, etcetera…
If PNoy thus displays incompetence, let us all invite the Chinese to invade and conquer the whole country, not only the Shoals and the Spratlys…Lol
Hey Pat, if that’s what it takes to purge our system of government of the worst filth that’s been killing our country for a while now, I’m with you. Since China can’t seem to get their hands on Taiwan, hey why not go for the one with a weak military force and a corrupt society. Transforming it’s people’s way of thinking with threat of prison camps and automatic death penalty for any crime committed will surely get the people’s attention. Yup, this may just be the thing that our country need, there’s nothing for us to loose except those corrupt politicians.
oopps
The centavo-worth of commentary is mine, Perry, not yours. Naimbag nga rabii, OK Kabsat. I am learning Ilocano from my wife who hails from Narvacan. he,he,he
Awanen ah, if the Chinese invade Pinas, Gloria Arroyo will have a feast day. Hindi ba naging kasabwat nya ang mga ‘yan sa ZTE-NBN Broadband scandal?
Pat, tama ka.
Ito katuwaan lang. Lahat ng makabasa nito, mag-predict tayo ng botohan. C – Convict, A – Acquit
Sa akin: C15 A8
OK folks…napuyat ako nang kapapanood nang proceedings kagabi. I am not sure about you guys, but Cong Farinas I felt gave the best argument. I love his surely to become very popular and persuasive “Palusot” argument. It is fitting Jessica Sanchez and Sarah Geronimo do collaborative efforts on a song that will be titled “Palusot”..he,he
It is great though ang ating kaisipan ay in agreement about China—of course this is all for joke and fun, beneath all these of course is our love for our PNas; otherwise, we won’t be here spending all time and efforts foll this impeachment and on Corona and Arroyo and on China etcetera. Anyway I am yet to hear from Romy (Sirate). I miss his funny pointers. Maybe, he is in PNas checking on Corona…Lol
Just a minute friends,although I’m with you guys,I think it was me who suggested the idea of inviting the chinese to invade the Philippines for 50 years so they can steer the filipino people in the right direction and eliminate corruption and RELIGIONS too.Anyway,I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who feels this way.Mabuhay tayong lahat na gustong maging CORRUPTION FREE ang Pilipinas at any cost.My vote is C CONVICT and HANG.Recover the stolen wealth and spend it for the welfare of the poor filipinos.
After watching Sen. Enrile putting Serafin Cuevas on an embarassing situation early this morning,my thoughts and feelings for him are these: He is not only very brilliant and fearless but he will also leave a legacy of fairness,honor,and dignity.he’s got my admiration and respect.mabuhay po kayo Sir Senator.
Sobra na ang drama nito. Let’s finish this and put this guy to rest, guilty means fired out from the job, wala namang jail ito sigurado. Pustahan tayo.
hindi naman martial law ang ipatupad ng executive department ang guilty verdict. kaya dapat naka standby na ang military sa ano mang pakulo ng maka corona para patagalin pa siya kahit isang minuto pa sa supreme court. dapat mula sa senado o supreme court dapat iuwi na siya sa bahay niya at 5:00 mamaya. no kung nasa ospital siya ay tapos na ang termino niya mamaya. at ang mga deposits at property niya ay mafreeze na sa possibleng mga kaso later.
I believe that Corona is definitely guilty. The purpose of a SALN is to establish a public officials assets before, during and after his tenure as a public official for accounting purposes; to determine if any increases in the asset base can be justified by what he legally earns as a public official eg salaries, bonuses. Obviously there are huge discrepancies that cannot be justified.
However, the exact source of these questionable funds has not been proven thus we know he is guilty but it cannot be proven how with the evidence presente. No witness has certified that the Chief Justice received a bribe, etc.
On legal technicalities, Corona may just make “lusot” in the words of Rep. Farinas.
I have been a socio-political columnist for the Ilocos Times since 2004, a regional newspaper in circulation in Ilocos Norte (Marcos and Farinas bailiwicks). And exposing corruption in government has been one of my thrusts.
The problem in the Philippines is that oorruption is systemic, deeply ingrained, pervasive at all levels of government, and generally accepted by the public.
Elections are characterized by massive vote-buying; thus elected officials are expected to recoup their investment once in office. And being an elective government official is lucrative. Two examples- elective officials like governors, mayors and congressmen receive regular payoffs from “juetung” (illegal numbers racket prevalent over the whole country). Some local officials reportedly receive P5 million a month for protection. Second, there is what insiders refer to as the social fund; a slush fund fed by skimming a certain percentage (10-50%) from every government transaction ranging from purchases to contruction projects, etc.
Corona can justify his enormous asset base if he accounts for these “transactions”.
Convicting Corona is a step in the right direction but the song remains the same. Only the actors will have changed.
Steve, Corona’s millions I’m sure came from several sources, GMA being the biggest contributor. Who knows, the millions that he’s been moving around from one account to another may have been his former boss’ money? Getting rid of corruption is not going to be an easy task, like you said, this practice had been ingrained in the people’s psyche for so long now that even the most extensive behavior modification technique from the best psychologist in the world may not even work. This practice (corruption) exist, I’m sorry to say, in almost all walks of life, it is now a part of our culture, the rich and the powerful uses it to enriched themselves, average people and even the poor rely on it just to survive. If you take this away from them, it’s like an alcoholic or drug addict going through a withdrawal process. It’s going to be painful but it must be done if we are to survive in this very competitive world.