Corona impeachment a portent of ‘more political maneuvers’ vs judiciary—Midas

MANILA, Philippines—The impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Renato Corona is a product of an “ill-advised leadership,” Supreme Court Spokesman and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said on Tuesday.

In his speech during the oath-taking ceremony of the officers and board of trustees of the Regional Trial Court Association of Manila at the Manila Diamond Hotel, Marquez said the “blitzkrieg fashion” by which Congress ruled on the impeachment showed that “we are being forced to surrender our constitutionally mandated powers and functions to the whim and caprice of political machinations.”

Marquez warned the judges that the impeachment is but a start of more political maneuvers to put the judiciary at the whims of politicians.

“I offer to you, to all of you judges, this brotherly warning that the forces and the issues at play here are aimed at our very offices, our sworn duties, and our important roles in our constitutional structure and administration of justice. To be sure, the perpetrators of this dastardly assault hope to intimidate and inspire fear among us with the loud clamoring of their ill-advised leadership. If they can toy with the public’s mind, to put the Chief Justice at the precipice of disaster, how much easier can it be to pressure any other member of the judiciary or anyone of us?”

Corona has been the first Chief Justice and Justice of the Supreme Court to be impeached by the House of Representatives.

Marquez said Corona will face the complaint and answer each of the eight grounds “point by point.”

“We respect the Senate as a separate independent institution. We have faith in it,” Marquez said as he noted that any lawyer reading the impeachment complaint would learn that it is unsubstantiated and intends only to insult Corona.

“They are attributing the Supreme Court decision to the Chief Justice alone. His is only a vote that is the same vote as the most junior member of the Court so why single him out,” Marquez said.

He assured that Corona continues to perform his mandate and that the work of the Court would not be affected by the complaint.