ZAMBOANGA CITY—A college friend urged impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona to resign his post and spare coequal branches of government from what he said was “structural destruction.”
Vicente Solis, a first placer in the 1973 bar exams, said the impeachment trial was taking its toll not only on the Chief Justice and his family but also on the entire nation.
“We are watching the structural destruction of coequal branches of government. It will do well if he resigns,” said Solis, Corona’s senior at Ateneo de Manila University.
The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), to which Ateneo belongs, agreed that the bad public perception of the three branches of government—the executive, legislative and judiciary—had become a cause for concern.
Let it ‘run its course’
But in a statement, CEAP said it wanted the impeachment proceedings to “run its course.”
CEAP said Corona should allow the opening of his foreign currency accounts and “not insist on meeting the legislative and executive branches head-on with this issue, lest it would stir conditions ripe for a constitutional crisis in our country.”
The opening of the accounts, CEAP said, would help the impeachment court ferret out the truth.
CEAP also urged Corona to be a good example to others occupying high positions in government “by allowing or providing written permission to open his foreign currency deposits in order that the truth can come out.”
The group said being the judiciary’s primary figure, Corona should abide by a standard of personal conduct that prohibits behavior that creates any suspicion of irregularity, immorality, impropriety or lack of respect toward traditionally honored rights and principles.