Corona sure of Aquino retaliation over Supreme Court ruling

Chief Justice Renato Corona. INQUIRER PHOTO

The man some credited for dismantling Hacienda Luisita is gearing for a possible counterattack from the Aquino administration.

Impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona on Wednesday said he was certain that the government would get back at him after the Supreme Court thumbed down the attempt of President Benigno Aquino III’s family to secure a higher valuation for the sugar plantation.

In a text message to reporters, Corona refused to take credit for the victory of 6,296 workers after three decades of legal battles.

“I’m not a champion,” Corona said of the accolade “champion of agrarian reform” given to him by some farmers’ groups. “We just did what is right and fair. That is social justice as ordained by the Constitution.”

Main reason

Asked if he was expecting a retaliation from the Aquino administration for the high court’s decision, he said: “Sigurado (That’s for sure).”

Corona, who is facing an impeachment trial in the Senate for alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, claims that the tribunal’s Nov. 22, 2011, ruling, which ordered the distribution of the estate, was the main reason Mr. Aquino wanted to unseat him.

In his separate and concurring opinion to the court’s November 2011 ruling, the Chief Justice said the stock distribution option in the hacienda in lieu of land distribution was unconstitutional.

Corona said the 1987 Constitution acknowledged the “primacy of the right of farmers and farmworkers to directly or collectively own the lands they till.”

“Any artificial or superficial substitute, such as the stock distribution plan, diminishes the right and debases the constitutional intent,” Corona said.

Originally posted at 03:29 pm | Wednesday, April 25,  2012