SC desistance looms over Corona trial

All taken in by the “Lin-credible” Jeremy Lin, let’s ponder how an Asian made it big in the NBA game of giants. It’s not so much his height (6’3") than his agility that is causing all the “Lin-thusiasm”. And Lin’s basketball skills were honed because of his “Chinese-ness”. That is, his Taiwanese dad, reminiscent of career-pushing tiger mom Amy Chua (also Taiwanese — and Filipino) somehow put him to it. “Culture and psyche make each other up,” writes Gish Jen in an analysis of the “Lin-spiration” for The New York Times. “We shape our templates as much as they shape us.” Read Jen’s “Asian Men Can Jump” in www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/opinion/asian-men-can-jump.html.

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The P32.6 million that Chief Justice Renato Corona withdrew from a bank on the day he was impeached last December 12 is not his. It’s his wife Cristina’s, his defense counsels claim. Be that as it may, the amount still doesn’t show in their joint Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. Besides, Corona’s undeclared bank deposits so far exposed in the Senate trial is double that: P64.2 million, by Rep. Walden Bello’s sum-up. It could even be triple, if included are Corona’s leaked dollar accounts, one of which contained $700,000 (P31 million) initial deposit. Add to that the undervalued and undisclosed real estates. Lead congressman-prosecutor Niel Tupas Jr. says they already have proved beyond doubt that Corona doctored his yearly SALNs, as charged. Too, that he hid the SALNs from the public, as charged, again in Article of Impeachment 2.

So far that’s where the trial is. Prosecution spokesman Rep. Romero Quimbo says they will move on this week to Article 3. That is, that Corona supposedly violated the Constitution and betrayed public trust by compromising judicial independence and integrity. Specifically, on a mere letter of an airline lawyer he reopened the long decided rehiring of 1,400 flight attendants, and indiscreetly discussed with Lauro Vizconde the pending Supreme Court review of his family’s murder. From there the prosecution will jump to Article 7: betrayal of public trust in letting his patron Gloria Arroyo nearly flee abroad from criminal charges.

But there’s a threat of disruption. Over the Senate trial looms the prospect of the SC stopping it. This is because Corona is asking the justices to do so while staying as their chief. He remains the signatory of their salaries, allowances, reimbursements, leaves, certifications of work output, and many other needs. Recusing himself from their deliberations on his petition could mean nothing. In fact, by an 8-5 vote with him not joining yet still CJ, the justices earlier had granted his plea to stop the Senate from opening his dollar accounts. This was on the reasoning that, despite anti-money laundering laws and the ends of justice, foreign currency deposits are utterly beyond scrutiny unless expressly allowed by the depositor. What the SC issued was a temporary restraining order, but in the SC a TRO can be forever.

The TRO nearly ignited a constitutional crisis, as senator-judges took it as a slur on their power to decide all impeachment cases. What saved the day was their 13-10 vote to obey it. But Corona swiftly followed up with a second petition — to stop the trial due to the alleged bias of five of the senator-judges. This supplemented his earlier plea to halt it because the House purportedly had railroaded his impeachment.

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III sees in the Corona petitions a plot for a mistrial. Bolstering his suspicion was the defense panel’s claim, with no attribution, that Malacañang was bribing the senators P100 million each to defy the SC. Had the Senate not voted 13-10 to obey, Osmeña says, the defense would have walked out of the trial. Pro-Corona demos by a religious sect could have been dry runs for bigger mass actions. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile rules out any mistrial, saying that in spite of a walkout the senators will render a verdict. At the same time, though, he concedes that the SC has power over issues of legality arising from the impeachment trial. UE law dean Amado Valdez fears that nothing can stop Corona from asking the SC as well to void a verdict of conviction.

Back to Corona’s damning deposits, two oblique points are being raised in defense. One is if undervaluing of net worth and non-disclosing of assets constitute high crime to remove a Chief Justice. The answer lies in two SC rulings under CJ Corona. One upholds the sacking of a BIR boss for not listing two SUVs in his SALNs. Another fired a court clerk for not disclosing as income source a market stall. Still in browbeating, a senator-judge asked Tupas what amount of mis-declaring the latter deemed as the threshold for high crime.

The other indirect line of defense aims to scare the business sector. Supposedly the opening of Corona’s accounts would have a “devastating effect” on the economy and “drive away the capital market of our country.” But Filipino-American lawyer Rodel Rodis chuckles that Al Capone’s counsels had employed the same argument in 1931, in vain. He quoted one defender as exhorting the jury to “stand as a bulwark against an oppressive government that was using the tax law as a means to stow Al Capone away.” He quoted another as imploring the all-male jurists: “You, gentlemen, are the last barrier between the defendant and the encroachment and perversion of the government and the law.” The US government nonetheless nailed Capone by showing his purchases to exceed his stated taxable income. The jury found him guilty, and the judge sentenced him to 11 years in Alcatraz.

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