Sen. Alan Cayetano votes for Corona conviction

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Alan Peter Cayetano voted Tuesday for the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona but also challenged all government officials to follow his example of signing a waiver opening their bank accounts so as to set a standard of transparency and accountability.

“I cannot agree on Corona’s interpretation of the law,” Cayetano said during his explanation for his vote of “guilty with penalty of removal from office.”

He said Corona’s explanation why the dollar and peso deposits were not declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN) was not acceptable.

Cayetano disagreed with Corona’s explanation that he could just “convert his money to dollar so he can get away from declaring it in his SALN.”

On Corona’s peso deposits, Cayetano said it was not enough that Corona just told his story about the “co-mingled” funds and let the senator-judges decide based on Corona’s credibility.

Cayetano said that “in signing the waiver [to open his bank deposits], he has set a new standard. We should all follow this standard.”

He said he would ask President Benigno Aquino III to instruct the entire Cabinet to sign a waiver to open their bank accounts to “rebuild a new paradigm of accountability and responsibility.”

Corruption was like a cancer that was severely affecting the country, he said.

The opening of the waiver of the bank accounts of all government officials will become “a new dawn of transparency and accountability.”

Cayetano said that it would become a “new milestone in the tuwid na daan [campaign].”