Guingona votes to convict Corona

Senator Teofisto Guingona III. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Teofisto Guingona III voted to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona Tuesday, saying that he violated the “sanctity of the Constitution.”

“In this trial, my vote is for the sacredness of the Constitution,” Guinggona said.

Corona used “the very same Constitution which mandates full public disclosure to justify concealment [of his funds],” Guingona said.

Corona testified that he did not declare his $2 million deposits because it was “absolutely confidential” under the Foreign Currency Deposits Act.

He also said that the more than P80 million deposits were also not declared in his SALN because it was “co-mingled” funds composed of money form his wife’s corporation and his children.

Guingona described it as “constitutional perversion in its ultimate form.”

The Constitution was sacred and “all government officials should uphold and protect [it],” he said.

Guingona said that Corona himself admitted that he did not declare his assets in accordance with the Constitution.

He said that Corona’s integrity and probity was already tarnished because he violated the constitution to be “accountable to the people at all times and serve with utmost integrity and utmost loyalty.”

Guingona said that the Supreme Court was supposed to be the one to uphold the Constitution but asked “how can we rely on it if it is the first to look for loopholes [in the law]?”

Corona was “no longer deserving of the trust of the people,” Guingona said.