Bellagio I now a tourist spot

Retired Supreme Court Justice Serafin Cuevas is in trouble—both from the public that admires him and from his church, the influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC).

From an admiring public, for denying a recorded interview with an Inquirer reporter where he said he didn’t succumb to pressure from Malacañang for him to withdraw from the impeachment trial.

From the INC, which might excommunicate him, for coming out with the story.

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A front-page story in the Inquirer on Wednesday said Cuevas was forced to deny the report after the INC scolded him, according to an INC insider.

It was a good thing the interview with the 83-year-old Cuevas was tape-recorded.

Cuevas’ denial made him look either like a petty liar or a garrulous old man who has memory lapses.

It was a bad reflection on his client, impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona.

The retired Supreme Court justice and former secretary of justice told Inquirer reporter Christian V. Esguerra he was approached by a Palace emissary who asked him to withdraw from the impeachment trial in exchange for the dropping of criminal charges that would be filed against Magtanggol Gatdula, the sacked chief of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

Because of the Cuevas caper, a source in the Palace said that it was the other way around: It was the INC, of which Cuevas and Gatdula are members, that pressured Malacañang to go easy on Gatdula.

The influential religious sect, whose members vote as a block, supported P-Noy in the presidential election.

It apparently wanted the President to return the favor by asking that Gatdula be spared from further prosecution after he was dismissed as NBI chief.

Gatdula, who had no blot on his record when he was with the Philippine National Police (PNP), was linked to the kidnapping of Noriyo Ohara, an undocumented alien, by NBI agents.

It is now obvious that P-Noy didn’t give in to the INC request.

And, in retaliation, Cuevas made up that story about being pressured by the Palace into withdrawing as Corona’s chief defense counsel.

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The President is walking on a tight rope in the Gatdula affair.

If he finally gives in to the INC, the findings of the fact-finding panel that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima formed to look into Ohara’s kidnapping will be for naught.

If he stands firm and says no, then the INC will retaliate by supporting candidates of the opposition in the next election.

If P-Noy shuns political considerations, then he’s really serious about his daang matuwid (treading the straight and narrow path) method of governance.

He needs all the support from the people.

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Property developer Megaworld, builder of Bellagio Tower I, has only Chief Justice Renato Corona to thank profusely for making the condominium a tourist spot.

Every day, hundreds of people take pictures of the 38-floor condominium, where Corona lives on the topmost floor, from the playground of Burgos Circle at The Fort, Taguig City.

The condominium has been in the news lately because of Corona.

The value of the real property has gone up considerably.

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By the way, Corona’s fellow resident is a police general still in the active service.

Another is retired Maj. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, former comptroller of the Armed Forces, who is being investigated with his wife, known as the “crying lady,” for unexplained wealth.