Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Let’s get it on.
Saying Chief Justice Renato Corona is “not the judiciary” and should not act as if he were above the law, the House of Representatives on Monday formally asked the Senate to junk his petition to dismiss the impeachment case against him.
The House also urged the Senate, which will sit as an impeachment court, to proceed with the trial and convict Corona. It said the Chief Justice’s claim that his impeachment threatened the judiciary’s independence was “grandiose and a sham.”
“The people want the truth to come out. Mr. Chief Justice, let’s get it on for the sake of the nation,” Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., chairman of the House justice committee, said at a press briefing.
In their reply to Corona’s petition, the House prosecution team dismissed his claim that his impeachment threatened the independence of the judiciary.
“Corona is not the judiciary and the articles of impeachment are leveled against him and him alone. This impeachment aims to remove him from office and free the Supreme Court from the influence of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former First Gentleman (Jose) Miguel Arroyo, and their cabal,” the team said.
The Senate is set to start the impeachment trial of Corona on January 16. He is facing eight charges, including betrayal of public trust as a result of his alleged partiality in cases involving former President Arroyo.
Tupas and four other lawmakers—Neri Colmenares, Reynaldo Umali, Joseph Emilio Abaya and Raul Daza—submitted to the Senate the House reply to Corona’s petition at 2:49 p.m. Monday.
“With the submission, we are all the more confident that the Senate will be convinced of the strength of our case and will convict CJ Corona for betrayal of public trust,” the House prosecutors said.
At the trial in the Senate, the House shall act as the sole prosecutor through a committee of 11 members to be elected by a majority vote.
Delaying tactic
Tupas dismissed Corona’s claim that the verification of the impeachment complaint was defective. He said the Chief Justice was resorting to legal technicalities to avoid accountability.
“(W)e challenge him not to resort to legal technicalities. It’s just a delaying tactic on the part of the Chief Justice to avoid public accountability and delay the process,” Tupas said.
He denied Corona’s claim that there were only four copies made available for the signatories of the impeachment complaint, adding that the complainants also signed the verification page.
Biggest coddler
The House prosecutors added that Corona’s removal would not weaken the Supreme Court or the judiciary. “Rather, it will strengthen and invigorate the institution by ousting GMA’s (Arroyo) single biggest coddler in the Supreme Court, thereby restoring the people’s faith in it.”
They said Corona was among the justices who voted for declaring the Philippine Truth Commission as unconstitutional; stopped the Aquino administration from revoking the appointment of GMA midnight appointees; issued a status quo ante order on the impeachment proceedings against former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez; and issued a temporary restraining order against the hold-departure order against the former First Couple.
The prosecutors dismissed Corona’s defense that these rulings were collegial decisions of the Supreme Court.
“True, but his individual vote in those decisions is undeniably his personal action and his own responsibility. And the consistent pattern of Corona’s voting, together with his long and very close personal and professional relations with GMA, indicate a strong bias in favor of GMA,” the House prosecutors said.
“Indeed, it is remarkable that even in those cases where the majority of the Supreme Court decided against GMA’s interests, Corona chose to go against the majority and voted in favor of GMA’s interests,” they said.
“Corona’s unfailing and unwarranted fealty to GMA shows that he is not independent-minded—he votes or resolves cases not in the merits, but on what would best serve GMA,” they added.
Power without accountability
The prosecutors reminded Corona that power without accountability was anathema to the Constitution.
“Corona is not immune from accountability. For all his self-serving, grandiose and arrogant claims, his impeachment is not an attack on the independence of the judiciary, or the rule of law, or the system of checks and balances,” they said.
The House prosecutors said Corona’s impeachment “is purely a response to the people’s clamor to hold him accountable for his sins and offenses, and purge the highest court of a morally unfit officer who has betrayed their trust.”
The team said Corona’s statements and actions showed that he considered himself to be above the law and that he refused to be held accountable.
“Any government employee can be removed from office for committing an offense, but Corona asserts he cannot be removed and imperiously equates his impeachment to an attack on the entire judiciary,” the House prosecutors said.
End untouchable complex
“This arrogance and ‘I-am-untouchable’ complex must end. Corona and those like him must be made to realize that they are servants of the people and answerable to the people. No one is above the law,” they added.
They said Corona’s impeachment was not the result of the high court’s decision awarding Hacienda Luisita, the sprawling sugar plantation owned by President Aquino’s clan, to farm workers.
“What Corona failed to mention … is that even President Aquino’s appointees in the Supreme Court voted in favor of the distribution [of the sugar estate], which belies Corona’s claim that President Aquino appoints justices who will protect his perceived interests,” the prosecutors said.
They denied that the ruling Liberal Party was behind his impeachment or that the process was done “in stealth.”
“If he did not sense his impeachment coming, then he is truly deaf to the cry of the people. Any objective observer would have readily seen it in the public outrage that attended Corona’s acceptance of his midnight appointment from GMA in 2010,” the prosecutors said.
188 signatories
On December 12 last year, 188 members of the House signed the impeachment resolution. The number of signatories was more than one-third of the 285 House members, a requirement under the Constitution to impeach the Chief Justice without going through the plenary debates. Twelve House members later signed a motion to include them as complainants.
“The truth is, impeachment did not immediately come, as Corona was given a chance for over a year to prove himself and fulfill his promise to faithfully and impartially discharge his office,” the prosecutors said.
“Unfortunately, his decisions in controversial cases involving GMA and the previous administration are the best evidence of his subservience to her and his failure to live up to the high standards of a Chief Justice,” they added.
Also other justices
The prosecutors said Corona was not being singled out. “At the moment, the evidence against Corona is stronger and more apparent than against the other justices. It will also be difficult to prosecute several justices at the same time. But this does not necessarily mean that other justices will not later on be similarly held accountable,” they said.
Sought for comment, Supreme Court administrator and spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said Corona’s submission to the Senate of an answer to the articles of impeachment was proof that “he recognizes the impeachment process.”
“But then again, the Chief Justice raised several issues concerning that. The process itself and its constitutional requirement were not complied with,” Marquez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“Even the substance of that complaint was also put at issue,” he added.
On the House contention that “Corona is not the judiciary,” Marquez said: “That’s their argument. Let’s wait for the rejoinder of the Chief Justice if his lawyers will find the need for it.”
Marikina Representative Miro Quimbo, meanwhile, said that the last slot in the 11-prosecution panel would be occupied by a woman and that Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada would withdraw from the prosecution panel.
Quimbo said Tañada and Quezon Representative Juan Edgardo Angara would serve as deputy spokespersons of the prosecution team. Tañada’s slot in the prosecution panel as alternate prosecutor will be taken by Representative Sherwin Tugna of the Citizen’s Battle Against Corruption party-list group. With a report from Marlon Ramos