Corona’s next stop: Campus lecture circuit

Students at the country’s top universities may expect a new visiting lecturer to come for a series of talks: ex-Chief Justice Renato Corona.

In an interview at The Medical City in Pasig on Saturday, Jose Roy III, one of Corona’s defense lawyers, said the former head of the judiciary had “expressed some interest” in making the rounds of universities and “lecture” his side of the impeachment story.

“Obviously, this is a matter of interest to law, community students and professionals,” said Roy, who had been visiting Corona in the hospital.

Asked which universities Corona was planning to visit, Roy said, “No, no, no, he did not say.”

Roy said, however, that he was “sure” the top universities would find Corona lectures “interesting.”

The House of Representatives impeached Corona in December for culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and betrayal of public trust. His trial in the Senate began in January. On Tuesday, after a 44-day trial, 20 of the 23 senators voted to convict him. They had found him guilty of untruthful disclosure because he did not report $2.4 million and P80 million in bank deposits.

Roy had been talking with Corona about what the former top justice planned to do after leaving the judiciary.

Aside from doing the lecture and speaking circuits, Roy said, Corona could also teach law.

Corona may also go back to his law practice, Roy said.

“[There is a] possibility but we did not discuss that,” he said.

Roy said Corona was “in very good spirits.”

Through the back door Corona was discharged from the hospital Saturday afternoon.

He gave reporters the slip by going out through the back door.

Anne de la Cruz, The Medical City’s chief of corporate communications, said Corona left the hospital at 5:40 p.m.

Asked if Corona left with anyone, De la Cruz said: “I really don’t know. I presume with his family.”

Reporters had been waiting at the entrance of the hospital since early morning, hoping Corona would issue a statement.

But only Roy came out to face them at 2 p.m. It was then that Roy spoke about Corona’s postjudiciary plans.

“The Chief Justice is comfortable with the knowledge that he has set the new standard for transparency, and I think the Filipino nation sees that, so for the moment, that’s quite an accomplishment,” Roy said.

Waiver

At the continuation of his testimony in the impeachment court on May 25, Corona submitted a waiver on the confidentiality of his bank accounts. The waiver also authorized any investigators to look into his other assets.

But the waiver came too late, as he had already admitted having $2.4 million in four unreported foreign currency accounts and P80 million in three undeclared peso accounts.

Corona explained that he did not report his dollar accounts because the Foreign Currency Deposits Act guaranteed their confidentiality.

He did not declare the three peso accounts, he said, because they contained “commingled funds,” including the savings of members of his family.

Most senators said he should have reported them just the same because the financial disclosure law requires public servants to declare all of their assets, including cash in the bank.

Only three senators—Joker Arroyo, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.—considered his omission “not an impeachable offense” and voted to acquit him. The rest of the Senate considered his omission a betrayal of public trust and voted to remove him from office.

But one of the senators who booted him out, Alan Peter Cayetano, considered Corona’s waiver a new standard in transparency in public service. Cayetano has launched a campaign to get all public officials to waive the confidentiality of their bank accounts.

First posted 1:14 am | Sunday, June 3rd, 2012