Corona showed disrespect for Senate court

Most people agree with Senate Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada that Chief Justice Renato Corona painted himself into a corner when he walked out of the impeachment court on Tuesday.

“He virtually hanged himself with that walkout,” Estrada said.

Corona’s walkout on the senator-judges was a complete show of disrespect for a coequal branch of government that is hearing graft complaints against him.

As the country’s chief magistrate, he should set an example of respect for authority.

Even those who sympathize with Corona will not raise a howl of protest if the Senate impeachment court finds him guilty because of his behavior.

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Corona has put to waste the brilliant defense by his lawyers, particularly retired Supreme Court Justice Serafin Cuevas.

Had he become patient and put up with the cross-examination by his accusers from the House of Representatives, things would have turned out differently.

He might be acquitted.

But with his walkout, his chances of acquittal are very slim.

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Corona’s waiver for the Senate to open all his bank accounts was with condition: that all the members of the House of Representatives and Sen. Frank Drilon also bare their bank accounts.

He is like a child who was caught with his finger in the cookie jar and pointing to other children as having stolen from the cookie jar as well.

The House prosecutors and Drilon are not on trial; he is.

With his kind of logic, it’s amazing how Corona became Chief Justice.

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Buried by the impeachment trial is the kidnapping case of the Japanese woman Noriyo Ohara by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

It’s been months now since a Department of Justice (DoJ) fact-finding panel concluded its investigation and found then NBI Director Magtanggol Gatdula and some of his men liable for the kidnapping Ohara, an undocumented alien, for ransom.

Many things have happened since then. Gatdula has been dismissed and NBI Deputy Director Rey Esmeralda survived an ambush.

Esmeralda was suspected by some of his colleagues of having fed this writer information about Ohara’s kidnapping.

But it’s the other way around: I was the one who asked Esmeralda to check if Ohara was being kept by the NBI, which he did.

Before I asked him to check, Esmeralda was clueless about Ohara’s kidnapping by some of his colleagues.

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As the guy who exposed Ohara’s kidnapping, I ask this question: Why is it taking the DoJ so long to file criminal charges against those involved?

Mario Garcia, the NBI agent who allegedly masterminded Ohara’s kidnapping, has not been suspended.

Garcia’s henchmen, who stole Ohara’s luggage containing her jewelry and important papers, like the deeds of sale of her house and two cars, are also still around.

Are the members of the DoJ fact-finding panel, led by Undersecretary Francisco Baraan, scared of filing charges against those involved because of Esmeralda’s ambush?

Just asking.