Dismissed Delsa on Convicted Corona: 'Now we are the same'

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines - Delsa Flores, the court interpreter at the Regional Trial Court Branch IV in Panabo, Davao, who was dismissed by the Supreme Court for failing to disclose ownership of a stall in a public market in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), welcomed the Senate's decision against Chief Justice Renato Corona. 

Flores said that after the Senate impeachment court convicted Corona, she realized that there's equal justice between a lowly government employee like her and a ranking public official like Corona.  

"Pareho lang pala kami [We are just the same]," said Flores in a television interview on Tuesday.  

But unlike Corona, who underwent due process, Flores said she was outrightly dismissed from service without any legal proceedings. 

"I was not given a chance to defend myself because it was an administrative case. Derecho na nila akong pinarusahan [They punished me immediately]," she said.

"Nanahimik na ako. Wala akong magawa kasi maliit lang po akong trabaho, wala akong pang-abogado [I just kept silent. I could not do anything because I was just a lowly government employee, I had no money to pay for a lawyer to defend me]," added Flores, a widow and mother of four.  

Many of the senator-judges who voted to convict Corona on Tuesday cited the case of Flores. They said that if a lowly public servant like her was punished for the non-declaration of her stall in the market in her SALN, why would Corona be allowed to go-scot free when the chief justice himself admitted that he did not declare in his SALN P180 million in foreign and local bank deposits.  

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