THE Aquino 3rd regime's persecution of Chief
Justice Renato Corona in 2012 was one of the most evil, most shameful episodes
in our history as a nation, unparalleled in the injustice it wrought on a high
public official and how Congress and media were accomplices.
Ten years after he was removed through the Senate
impeachment court's May 29, 2012 decision, the long hand of justice has
vindicated Corona, de facto condemning his persecutors to infamy.
The Sandiganbayan anti-graft court ruled on Nov. 3,
2022 that the accusations against Corona were totally, indisputably wrong, that
his assets — which a resolution by the House of Representatives headed by
Feliciano Belmonte to impeach him had claimed were ill-gotten — were all
explainable by income through 45 years of private and law practice, and from
sales of his wife's inherited assets.
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In
its decision, the Sandiganbayan admonished Congress that the Statement of
Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) which the latter alleged Corona had
not submitted accurately, is "a tool for public transparency and never for
a weapon for political vendetta."
Ironically,
it was the ruthlessness and determination of Aquino 3rd's political assassins
that provided the venue for justice to be done, for Corona's name to be
cleared. The Aquino operatives had a "Plan B" in case the Senate had
acquitted Corona.
Sen.
Risa Hontiveros, Ateneo instructor Harvey Keh and an Aquino minor official
Ruperto Aleroza, and two other Yellow operatives filed on Feb. 17, 2012 — while
the trial was still going on — a case against Corona at the Ombudsman for
unexplained wealth, asking the Sandiganbayan to forfeit his assets and later
file criminal charges. If that case hadn't been filed, Corona's case would be
left to be debated by academics, their arguments in books to gather dust in
some library. The Sandiganbayan decision has however put it on record that
Corona was innocent of the" unexplained wealth" charges, that his
removal as Chief Justice was merely a "political vendetta."
Ombudsman
The Ombudsman certainly did not leave any stone
unturned to get the Sandiganbayan to hear the case, and convict him. The
Ombudsman at the time was Conchita Carpio-Morales, known to have hated Corona
so much that in the impeachment trial, she even provided wrong testimony that
double-counted the amount of Corona's bank assets to exaggerate his assets by a
hundred million pesos. Aquino 3rd had appointed her to the post a year earlier
and she had seven years to go before her mandatory retirement.
Carpio-Morales personally oversaw the investigation
so she could file the case at the Sandiganbayan. In a demonstration of her or
the Aquino regime's ruthlessness in crushing Corona, Carpio-Morales filed the
complaint before the Ombudsman June 29, 2013, a year after the chief justice
had already been removed by the Senate.
Rappler editor-at-large Marites Danguilan-Vitug,
one of Corona's most vociferous critics — at the start of the trial to
denigrate his reputation, she wrote an article falsely claiming the chief
justice had cheated to get his PhD at the UST — pressed so much in media for
the filing of the forfeiture case that I cannot understand her odium against
Corona.
On the first anniversary of Corona's removal, she
wrote that his political assassination was not enough: "Corona has not yet
been brought to trial. So far, none of his assets have been forfeited because
our legal environment makes this difficult to do."
Vitug
Vitug wrote: " The impeachment story dwelt on
Corona's hidden wealth. Without the impeachment process and the court's power
to subpoena, we would not have unearthed this treasure trove of allegedly
ill-gotten assets. After we were astounded by his huge bank accounts and
high-end properties, which clearly surpassed his earnings as a public official,
we still do not know where his wealth came from."
Vitug should be enlightened now by the
Sandiganbayan's decision (posted at rigobertotiglao.com). The Sandiganbayan
rigorously analyzed each and every peso and dollar of increases in Corona's
assets, and heard testimonies of auditors who examined the accounts, a chunk of
which were proceeds from the sale of real estate that was the inheritance of
his wife Cristina.
The court also addressed the claim of the Ombudsman
that a P9-million increase in Corona's assets cannot be explained. It pointed
out: "The increase in the amount of P8,970,980 over a 10-year period is
neither substantial nor manifestly out of proportion to respondents' lawful
income. It is worth stressing that CJ Corona was an Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court for eight years; as such he was assigned services of drivers,
entitled to gasoline allowance and vehicle maintenance, among others. These
benefits coherently amplify the respondents' savings which explain the increase
in their assets."
The Corona prosecution is a most foul case of
injustice as his removal as chief justice — the first and only episode through
an impeachment court — by Aquino 3rd was undertaken by two of the Republic's
pillars, thereby debasing these institutions.
Aquino needed Corona removed as chief justice in
order for his clan's Hacienda Luisita to be given compensation of P10 billion
for being put under land reform; the Corona-led court had decided it should
just be P300 million. That decision, however, could have been reversed to favor
Aquino's clan as an appeal had been filed in 2010. If Corona were removed, his
replacement could be cooperative to Aquino 3rd's wishes. The replacement, Maria
Lourdes Sereno certainly championed the clan's interest. But the overwhelming
majority of the Supreme Court voted against her opinion.
The Firm
Aquino 3rd was enthusiastically supported in his
plot by one of the most powerful law firms in the country through three
administrations, which had for years salivated that one of its founders be
appointed chief justice. Vitug and another columnist who wrote vicious columns against
Corona were alleged to be very close to that law firm.
After Corona was removed though, Aquino
double-crossed that firm, when instead of its choice, he appointed a college
classmate, Sereno as chief justice. In a remarkable twist of this saga, Sereno
was removed by the Supreme Court essentially for her failure to submit her
SALNs for a number of years.
It was the forfeiture case and then the
Sandiganbayan's freeze order on Corona and his family's bank accounts in 2015
that broke the man's back. The forfeiture case would have impoverished his
family, with all his earnings for 45 years as a lawyer and those of his wife's
inheritance confiscated.
Corona died of a heart attack on April 29, 2016.
Sen. Miriam Santiago (one of the three senators who voted Corona innocent) was
indeed very insightful when in her speech to explain her vote, she said:
"Conviction on impeachment is a stunning penalty, the ruin of a
life."
The first who should apologize for this colossal
injustice against Corona are the members of the 15th Congress (2010 to 2012)
all of whose members who supported Corona's impeachment had gone on to continue
their careers as if nothing happened even if months after Corona's removal it
was revealed that their cooperation in impeaching him and later on to convict
him were due to the huge bribes they received, in the form of pork barrel funds
and a new scheme called the Disbursement Acceleration Fund.
Monument
To correct that injustice the current Congress
should pass a resolution apologizing to Corona's family, and order a monument
to him at the Supreme Court's headquarters. I would think President Ferdinand
Marcos Jr. would support such a resolution: He was one of only three senators
(out of the 23) who voted against Corona's removal.
The
second most responsible for this evil deed was a major section of media, most
of the broadsheets and even journalists respected by the new generation, as
well as the US-funded institutions that were active in the impeachment in
demonizing Corona: Rappler.com, the Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, and VERA Files. These
media outlets molded Filipinos' minds to conceal the deep injustice of Corona's
impeachment, which Sen. Joker Arroyo said was a "political assassination."
Marcos
in explaining his decision to acquit Corona was bold enough to blame media for
Corona's removal: "At the expense of the sub judice rule, evidence had
been presented to the public on several occasions even before they were
formally offered before this court. Worse, information was grossly exaggerated
with the apparent intention to predispose the public mind against the chief
justice. Notable examples would be the Land Registration Authority report with
the discredited list of 45 properties and the unauthenticated AMLC report
claiming that the chief justice allegedly owned $10 million."
Marcos' statement in explaining his
"acquit" decision was extraordinarily prescient: "When the furor
dies down and this political storm has subsided, I know that like Lady Justice,
we shall find solace in the fact that this decision, though maybe not popular,
was fair, impartial and just."
Karma
Perhaps that decision was Marcos' huge, good karma
which was handed over to him 10 years later, the highest post in the land.
Indeed his decision to vote to acquit Corona made me review — and later revise
— my antagonistic views of his father and the martial law era which I had held
since I was a communist cadre in my youth.
As unforgivingly reprehensible as the removal of
Corona, has been Rappler CEO Maria Ressa's touring the world, claiming that the
libel charge against her for which she has been convicted was just one of the
past administration's attempts to suppress her and her news website.
The incontrovertible reality is that the libelous
article was part of Rappler's campaign to demonize Corona, by alleging that a
rich, "notorious" businessman lent him an armored SUV. After 10 years
of trial, with American money funding over P50 million of her legal expenses
and PR efforts to demonize the country, that allegation has been destroyed,
ground to a fine sand by the court.
Yet Ressa has been so arrogant, thinking she is
beyond the Philippine legal system. She has refused to this day, to take down
the libelous article.
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Report from Manila Times
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