MANILA, Philippines—Senators demanding that Chief Justice Renato Corona identify the senator he claims to have sent an emissary telling him to resign will have to wait, a defense lawyer said Saturday.
“In time he will identify the senator. If and when he testifies, this question will be asked of him. If he tells it now, he might offend the senator,” defense panel spokesperson Tranquil Salvador III told the Inquirer by telephone. “Let’s see if he decides to do it before the trial or during the proceedings.”
In radio interviews last Friday, Corona claimed that a senator had sent an emissary to warn him that he would be “stripped in public” if he did not resign.
The chief justice said the emissary went to see him at the Supreme Court after he was impeached by the House of Representatives December. He stopped short of identifying the senator, whom he described as male, lest the legislator get “angrier” with him. Senator Franklin Drilon, an ally of President Benigno Aquino, dared him to name the senator.
Responding to criticism of Corona’s recent media apperances, Salvador said Corona was merely sharing his thoughts in response to requests for interviews, and in the face of public vilification by some sectors.
Meanwhile, Drilon said Saturday that the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order on Corona’s dollar accounts should now be lifted after he expressed willingness to open all his bank accounts.
Drilon said Corona’s pronouncements about his readiness to open his accounts in a flurry of media interviews have in effect rendered moot the high court’s TRO on his foreign currency deposits at Philippine Savings Bank.
“The TRO preventing the opening of dollar accounts of the chief justice has, in effect, become moot and academic since Corona said he was willing to divulge his dollar accounts,’’ Drilon said in a statement.
In reply, Salvador said Corona was not a party to the petition filed by PSBank, and hence, his pronouncements have no effect on the case.
“The bone of contention before was that the opening of his dollar accounts would violate the provision of RA 6426, but now, with the recent development, it appears to me that no provision would be violated in case the Senate inquires on his dollar accounts,” Drilon said.
During his media-hopping the past week, Corona said over GMA 7 that he would make good on his promise to make public his dollar accounts in PSBank.
“Whether or not there will be a TRO from the Supreme Court, I said I will open it up at the right time, and that right time is next week when we will start presenting our evidence,” Corona said.
On the petition of PSBank, the high court voted 8-5 to issue a TRO stopping the impeachment court from scrutinizing his dollar accounts. The senator-judges voted to respect the TRO.