Corona lawyer cries foul over World Bank report on loan misuse

MANILA, Philippines—The camp of Chief Justice Renato Corona cried foul Saturday over the allegation that the Supreme Court under his watch mismanaged a loan from the World Bank.

Ramon Esguerra, a spokesperson of Corona’s legal team, said the allegation was “not in any way connected to any of the articles of impeachment.” He said it should be the high tribunal as a whole that should respond to the accusation, not Corona alone.

“Two days before the opening of the trial and there’s this story?” he told the Inquirer by phone. “The barrage of black propaganda has not ceased. In fact, it’s now coming out with greater intensity.”

Esguerra said media reports about Corona’s alleged ill-gotten wealth, including the latest one on the supposed fund mismanagement at the Supreme Court, were all part of “a pattern of harassment intended to demonize the chief justice in the eyes of the public.”

“It’s very unfair,” he protested.