Supreme Court: Corona will face trial

CHIEF JUSTICE CORONA Ready to answer all complaints at appropriate time NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Chief Justice Renato Corona is willing to undergo an impeachment trial and will refute the charges against him “point by point,” the spokesperson of the Supreme Court said Tuesday.

Speaking at a gathering of the Manila Regional Trial Court Judges Association, Jose Midas Marquez, the concurrent court administrator, said the high court would not be “pressured” by President Benigno Aquino III’s continuing attacks against it.

“Whoever is putting all these words and thoughts in our [President’s head] is doing a great disservice to the country and the Filipino people,” Marquez said. He said that with the impeachment complaint having been transmitted to the Senate, “let’s all stop this now, let’s wait for the Chief Justice to respond.”

Marquez said Corona “respects the constitutional process of impeachment” and “will face all these complaints at the appropriate time.”

To the question of whether Corona would consider resigning instead, Marquez said: “I think that is also one of the objectives of this political maneuvering—to have the Chief Justice resign. But he will face these charges squarely before the Senate.”

Marquez said that despite his impeachment, Corona “continues to be the Chief Justice and will continue to discharge his function in accordance with the Constitution.” He said the Supreme Court would continue to function regularly.

He claimed that many of the issues raised against Corona in the impeachment complaint were “rehashed,” pointing out that the nonpublication of statements of assets and liabilities had been a policy of the high court since the time of Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, and that the allegation about Corona’s wife being an appointee at the Bases Conversion Development Authority had already been addressed.

Blitzkrieg

“[These are] old issues, which are being resurrected. We will just have to answer them the way we [did before],” Marquez said.

Marquez assailed the House of Representatives for “rushing” the impeachment: “Our Chief Justice has been impeached in blitzkrieg fashion, in an unprecedented, lightning-like coming together of 188 members of the [chamber]. This astonishing, astounding feat has never been seen in response to urgent legislation long pending and gathering dust in the halls of our revered Congress.”

He said that while he “will not be quick to impute partiality or bias, I am sure that many of you will agree with me that there is much, much more than meets the eye in this abrupt turn of events.”

The Chief Justice represents “only one vote, which is the same as the most junior justice,” Marquez said. “So why single him out?”

According to Marquez, the impeachment charges are an attack against the entire judicial branch of the government: “Make no mistake. This is an assault not only on the person of Chief Justice Corona, not only on his Office, not only on the Supreme Court. This is an assault on all the rights, powers and privileges of the entire judiciary. We are being forced to surrender our constitutionally mandated powers and functions to the whim and caprice of political machinations.”

He said that “any lawyer worth his salt will have difficulty finding [in the complaint] sustainable charges worthy of a conviction in an impeachment proceeding.”

To malign and destroy

Marquez also said that as a lawyer, and not as a court official, he believed that the charges against Corona “can have no genuine motive other than to malign, to smear and to destroy the reputations of the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court and the entire judiciary for obvious political reasons and personal ambitions.”

“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,” he said, adding:

“To be sure, the perpetrators of this dastardly assault hope to intimidate and inspire fear amongst 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?”

Marquez said he had “no doubt” that “we are staring a constitutional crisis right in its face.”

Recalling Corona’s speech to Supreme Court employees the other day, wherein he said he was not only the Chief Justice but also the defender of the judiciary, Marquez said: “I am emboldened and inspired by his courage. For me, it is not only a source of strength but [also] a call to duty. It is the same call I ask you all to heed.”

Hitler invoked

In response,  Judge Antonio Eugenio, the president of the judges’ association, also denounced the House members’ supposed rushing of the impeachment complaint, saying such a move should not be based on popularity alone.

“They act, they measure righteousness by sheer numbers. They act on the basis of popularity … that the majority of the people believe in their actions,” Eugenio said, adding:

“I remember history. When Adolf Hitler assumed power in Germany, he was a most popular figure. He put up the Third Reich and trampled on the rights of everyone because he was very popular. We all know what happened to him.”

Eugenio also said the Philippine Judges Association was drafting a position on Corona’s impeachment last night.

A “prayer rally” expected to be attended by justices, judges and other court employees has been scheduled at 2 p.m. Wednesday in front of the Supreme Court building in Manila. Participants have been asked to wear black and the embattled Chief Justice is expected to speak at the gathering.