The greater fault

President Aquino’s call for people power let the cat out of the bag. The impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona is not about a fight against corruption. Indeed, the glaring facts are coming out to show that corrupt methods are being used to impeach CJ Corona.

Corruption will never be solved by more corruption. Indeed corruption would be reinforced if the Senate would go along with the executive strategy of using extralegal methods to impose its will. That is the bottom line of the impeachment trial going on. It will only increase corruption if we allow the arrogance of power to take the place of strengthening our institutions. It is the formula for impunity.      

The President’s unrelenting persecution of the Chief Justice as his political and personal enemy is breaking down institutions like a ten pin bowl strike. 

A perceptive friend said to me during the defense press conference at the full packed Kalayaan Hall at the Club Filipino that the SJ Renato Corona could be god-send. We have grown too complacent, too laid back to care about change towards good government. We think it will just happen without our active participation in making it happen. Today we are paying a high price for that mistake. Another Edsa at this point would be the height of hypocrisy and futility. It will only mean more of the same or worse.

What has been done since then that should persuade us to launch another Edsa? It certainly reminds us again that the presidential system we have does not help us select good leaders. We need systemic change. It would be tragic if we were to be carried away by still another siren song.

What is the greater fault — the sanctimonious desire to stop “corruption” or a leader who has failed to lead? The effects of that failure are too evident to be ignored or missed.

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Why should the senator judges resent accusations that bribes were on offer for those who would vote to defy the TRO? If the impeachment was rushed in three hours by 188 congressmen/women without giving them enough time to read it, there could have been certainly an incentive in money or in kind to make it happen. That is the precedent to go by. The impeachment hearing has been infirm from the start. It was corrupt.

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CJ Renato Corona is the underdog who does not have a chance with an administration determined to destroy him even before he has a chance to answer his accusers. This column would give him the chance to be heard.

“Throughout my public career, I have never been involved in any anomaly or scandal. Whatever assets my wife and I have acquired are products of 45 years of toil and honest work.

“My wife and I have been privileged to come from families of comfortable means. We grew up never lacking in anything and even enjoyed some luxuries. We earned our academic degrees in some of the best exclusive schools in the country. I went on to earn several postgraduate degrees, including a Master’s degree in Harvard Law School. Our parents provided well for our future. Family resources continue to be available to us anytime.

“I have had very successful career in the private sector where I was a top executive before I joined the government. That is public record.

“For the past 40 years, my wife and I lived in a house, which was inherited property, and for that reason never had to pay rent or amortization on our residence. This translated to significant savings over 40 years.             

“We have lived simple and frugal lives since we got married more than 40 years ago, to the point of thriftiness. This contributed to how we have been able to accumulate these assets. Other than our house, which we have lived in for almost 40 years, we have never had any other house.

“I do not spend on vices like smoking, drinking or gambling, and have been completely devoted to my family. My family has always been my priority.

“It pains me to see my family suffer the reckless abandon of a few who want to paint a different Renato C. Corona. I will not allow a career carefully nurtured and a family lovingly cared for in my lifetime to be tarnished by people in the business of lies and falsehoods.

“But I am determined, with my Defense Team, to explain everything satisfactorily when our turn comes to present our evidence. If you look closely at the documents already marked, the explanations are all there.

“In the meantime, I would like to request the public not to make any hasty conclusions. This ‘expose’ that the prosecution is trying to herald as another ‘bombshell’ will, in due time, be exposed as another dud like the 45 properties they claimed I owned.

“To the Prosecution Team, I do know my law. I have not broken any law. I have no liability to the people and to the government.

“What my wife and I have is the fruit of hard and honest work for which all taxes have been fully paid. Since the Prosecution alleged wrongdoing, the obligation to prove it is theirs and theirs alone. Do not extract it from me through means that are foul, coercive and illegal because this can only mean one thing: YOU DID NOT HAVE ANY IOTA OF EVIDENCE AGAINST ME WHEN YOU FILED THE IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINT.

“As to the effort of the Prosecution to enlist the assistance of certain patently partisan and inquisitorial Senator-Judges to help obtain the evidence you are digging up only now, not to mention the ruthless, unchristian and unrelenting public persecution through trial by publicity against my family and I, I hope the public will see through your schemes. My entire family is now, among others, being harassed by the BIR. I hope this persecution will never happen to any other official, officer, captain of industry or Juan dela Cruz. I would not wish it on my worst enemy, should I have one.

“Finally, the President has clearly committed an impeachable offense when he came out swinging by openly urging the Senator-Judges to disobey the Constitution he has personally sworn to uphold.      

“Itong impeachment trial na ito ay isang huwad, isang paghihiganti ng sukdulan at kahiya-hiyang tangka na pigilin ang pagbabahagi ng lupain sa Hacienda Luisita.”