Letter from a businessman
Ideas and opinions on Chief Justice Corona’s impeachment trial case are being exchanged among concerned businessmen in Cebu. Here is one, which is being circulated in a group, that I believe should be read also by all concerned citizens in the country especially the business sector. It is the letter from businessman Vicente Paterno that he sent to the BusinessWorld newspaper in relation to the column of Teresa Abesamis.
As a background, Paterno now chairs the Philippine Seven Corp. He was once the chairman of the board of investment from 1970 to 1979, the agency entrusted by the government to promote more investment in the country. He was appointed minister of public highways in 1979. In serving the government, he also became chairman and president of Philippine National Oil Company in 1986 and deputy executive secretary for Energy of the Office of the President from 1986 to 1987. He was senator from 1987 to 1992.
Paterno was one of the three technocrats hired by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos whom I admired for their ability and dedication to the tasks assigned to them. The two others were Gerardo P. Sicat who headed the National Economic and Development Authority and Cesar Virata who was the finance chief.
In his letter, Paterno decried the great interest of Corona to be named Chief Justice so as to prevail on his colleagues to decide that the constitutional provision should not be applied to appointments to the Supreme Court. According to Paterno, those in business should understand the gravity of the impeachment court’s decision because if it retains Corona as Chief Justice, it could be a signal to many corrupt members of the Philippine judiciary that they also could carry on without fear. He then appealed to the business sector to open their eyes and see how such developments would end the world’s present favorable outlook for the country.
Here is Paterno’s letter:
“My compliments to columnist Ms. Teresa Abesamis on your March 20’s page 5 ‘Truth or Evidence.’ She points out the ‘decision of the Senate impeachment court will set the ethical standards for the Chief Justice of the Court of Last Resort.’ That Court presides over the entire judiciary, the government arm empowered to make the final verdicts over life, liberty and belongings of the Filipino people. The decision will most certainly influence how business will be done in this country—sthrough the buying and/or delaying of court cases on life, liberty and property or in ensuring that cases are decided firmly with fairness and dispatch.
“I address this letter to your readers who like me are in the business of our business, but should not limit themselves to it, and must think beyond its narrow confines.
“Mr. Corona so lusted to be Chief Justice as to prevail on his colleagues to decide that the Constitutional provision should not be applied to appointments to the Supreme Court. Was not that self-serving decision prohibited, if not by law, then certainly by decency and morality, for Court members to decree that a Constitutional prohibition does not apply to them?
“Business needs to understand the gravity of the Impeachment Court’s decision. If it is to retain Corona as Chief Justice, I say that will signal to many corrupt members of the Philippine judiciary that they also could continue in corrupt practices without fear. I say that will signal to senior government employees also illegally appointed by Gloria Arroyo that they have sympathizers in the highest court and need not fear to be removed. It is my serious fear that a retention of Mr. Corona as Chief Justice will preserve, allow uncut, the chains of corruption that still afflict our country from the rule of Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
“I appeal to my fellow businessmen. Open your eyes to see how such developments would end the world’s present favorable outlook for our country. The anticipation that BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] is about to be followed by VIP—Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines—could be shattered. Because we did not see, nor lift a finger to prevent, the defense panel’s obfuscation of facts that were being brought out into the open. Because we were so absorbed in our businesses of the moment, we did not realize the senator judges were agreeing to honor self-serving decisions by colleagues of Mr. Corona in the Supreme Court. Or did a too-timid business community lack the guts or the wisdom to take action and contribute their viewpoints on the people’s ongoing debate about the Impeachment Court?
“Let us not consent to flagrant suppression of truths. Let it not be said that business people like you and me timidly opted to behave like the monkeys who refused to see, hear or speak about evil. For we will inevitably be among that evil’s inheritors, but unlike most Filipinos we could now be helping much more to prevent it.”
