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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines -- Politics lies at the root of his impeachment trial, according to Chief Justice Renato Corona, and added to his court’s Hacienda Luisita ruling another motivation for the Aquino administration to get him out: the “need to nullify the constitutional election of the sitting Vice President.”
The “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 Malacanang tenant; the need to nullify the constitutional election of the sitting Vice-President; the need to appoint a new Chief Justice who will deliver anything and everything the President wants,” Corona said.
He warned that “recent events show we are teetering towards 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.”
Corona was speaking at the blessing of the Justicia Room, Ateneo Law School, Ateneo Professional Schools Building at the Rockwell Center in Makati City Friday night. A copy of his short speech was obtained by InterAksyon.com.
As chief justice, Corona presides over the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) which settles disputes relating to the election, returns and qualifications of candidates for president and vice president.
President Aquino’s Liberal Party running mate in the 2010 polls, Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II, has a pending electoral case against Vice President Jejomar Binay, who is not the President’s party mate, having run with Joseph Estrada under an opposition coalition.
Corona did not elaborate on how Malacanang Palace has been leaning on the Supreme Court sitting as a PET in the Roxas-Binay poll dispute.
In Friday’s remarks at the Justicia center, Corona accused two daily newspapers and a broadcast network, none of which he identified, of conducting a calibrated smear campaign against him. He said they have crucified him and his family the past two months, effectively conducting a trial by publicity outside of the Senate sitting as impeachment court.
He also accused “some Senator-Judges” of having “taken on the role of Prosecutors and have converted what should be an adversarial proceeding into an inquisition.”
Corona added: “I can no longer count how many of my constitutional rights have been blatantly and grossly violated. The BIR, not to be outdone, has launched a concurrent tax investigation of my entire family, including my son-in-law.”
Still, Corona said, he has steeled himself for such adversity, as his Ateneo education prepared him for it.
“The four years of rigorous study, hard work and sacrifice we undergo in law school are part of our initiation and training as lawyers. And we are proud of the law school that gave us that training.”
Recalling his difficult time through law school as a married man, he credited as well his wife of 44 years Cristina---whose government sinecure during the term of President Gloria Arroyo and considerable real property assets are intertwined in the complaint brought against him by his impeachers---for being a constant source of support.
He singled out as source of inspiration former Ateneo Dean Pompeyo Diaz. “He used to tell us, his young students then, that there are many evil people in this world but the most dangerous is the one who knows the law but has no conscience.”
Stressing “the magistrate’s only real defense is a good conscience,” Corona said he had always strived to be a man of the law. “Despite the pain and the difficulties, I willingly submitted myself to the constitutional process to prove one point: that fear has no place in the magistrate’s heart. What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. People can demonize you and picture you to be the most evil and unworthy person around. In the final analysis, however, what they say does not really matter because you and you alone know the truth.”
