Aquino’s reform and anticorruption agenda to suffer if Corona stays

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III said Thursday his reform agenda and fight against graft and corruption will suffer should impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona be acquitted by the Senate.

At a “town hall” meeting held at La Consolacion College in Manila, the President was asked how his reform program will be affected by a Corona acquittal.

“Extremely difficult if not impossible,” the President replied.

President Aquino was at La Consolacion for an event related to the celebration of the 26th anniversary of the Feb.25, 1986 People Power uprising that ended the dictatorship of the late Ferdinand Marcos and brought the late Corazon Aquino, the current president’s mother, to power.

Mr. Aquino earlier delivered a searing speech in which he used video clips.

When the President derided Corona for declaring in his 2010 SALN that his cash for that year was only P3.5 million when records of his bank accounts presented in the impeachment court showed he had P31.75 million, a chart of the latter’s cash deposits was shown in video.

And as the President explained that his fight against Corona intensified because the Corona-led Supreme Court allowed former President Gloria Arroyo to leave the country purportedly for medical treatment, a video was shown of Arroyo’s unsuccessful attempt to leave the country at the airport.