Senate impeachment court convicts Corona
The
Philippine Senate, with an overwhelming 20-3 vote to impeach Chief Justice
Renato Corona, has handed President Benigno S. Aquino the biggest victory of
his presidential reign, which began in July of 2010.
Corona,
removed on charges he had failed to declare $2.4 million in foreign currency
deposits, is the first public official ever to be ousted by an impeachment
court. His ouster from the 15-member court, while ostensibly a legislative act,
nonetheless was engineered by Aquino and it puts the president one step closer
to bringing down his chief target, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,
whom he has vowed to bring to justice.
For
international investors, the completion of the impeachment trial can probably
be regarded as a healthy sign that Aquino is committed to cleaning out the
corruption stables. But the bigger question is how to translate his campaign
against Arroyo and by extension Corona into success in a country where
corruption is endemic, and along with it impunity for corrupted officials
caught with their hands in the till. The country ranks 125th on Transparency
International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Tea money is required at
virtually every step of any process having to do with government.
Corona,
who was elevated to chief justice as one of the last acts of Arroyo’s reign,
was the former president’s chief defender and, the president’s supporters said,
would have been a major obstacle in Aquino’s efforts to prosecute her. Corona
was brought down by allegations that he had millions of dollars in hidden bank
accounts, and that he had used his position as chief justice to swing decisions
in favor of those who had rewarded him.
In the
end, Corona faced only three of the eight articles filed by the House of
Representatives. Article 2 alleged that the chief justice had betrayed the
public trust and/or committed culpable violation of the Constitution for his
failure to disclose properties and bank accounts in his statements of assets,
liabilities and net worth from 2003 to 2010. Another article alleged that he
had failed to act with competence, integrity and independence in discharging
his duties as the country’s top magistrate. The third, Article 7, accused
Corona of favoring ex-President Arroyo in decisions.
Corona
had charged that the impeachment trial was a vendetta initiated by Aquino in
retaliation for court rulings that mandated the breakup of the controversial
Hacienda Luisita, the vast Aquino family plantation that previous courts had
ordered to be handed over to workers as a result of land reforms dating back to
the presidential reign of Aquino’s late mother, Corazon.
The
Supreme Court under Corona’s jurisdiction ruled that Arroyo could leave the
country for suspect medical care last November, leading to a dramatic
confrontation at Manila’s international airport, named for Aquino’s
assassinated father Ninoy, in which official stopped the former president from
leaving. She has been charged with vote fraud dating back to her 2004
presidential election. She remains under hospital arrest.
The
impeachment trial was marked with high drama and general high emotion as well
as breaks for medical checkups, as only a Philippine trial could be. Corona put
on a vigorous defense, challenging the entire legislature -- senators and
representatives as well – to make public their own statements of assets and
liabilities. He spoke in Tagalog rather than English, an indication that he was
talking directly to the Philippine people rather than to the Senate. At times
he broke into tears, weaving in personal attacks against his enemies and
telling stories about the struggles his family faced.
He
insisted that under the law he was not required to disclose the money. His
testimony was marked by emotional outbursts and one episode where he simply got
up and left the trial, only to be cornered before he could leave the building
and brought back in a wheelchair, . He later apologized but said he needed
medical attention, which brought up references to Gloria Arroyo, whose various
peregrinations in a wheelchair, wearing a heavy neck brace supposedly for a
degenerative bone disease that could only be treated outside the country, have
been ridiculed as faked.
In the
end, none of it worked. In a legislature where decisions are made on the basis
of political clout rather than the merits of issues, a 20-3 vote can probably
be interpreted as an indication that Noynoy Aquino’s clout is growing.
Earlier
concerns, for instance, that a dilatory president was concentrating on nailing
Gloria instead of paying attention to governing – especially having cancelled
several vitally important infrastructure projects because he wanted to ensure
transparency in the bid process, The National Economic Development Authority
recently announced it had approved five infrastructure projects including two
from the government’s priority project list and has upped the priority list of
public-private projects from 16 to 22, including four rail projects, requiring
expenditure of P352 billion (US$8.2 billion).
The
latest announcement involved projects worth P32.7 billion. Tender dates have
been set for a further seven of the projects, a sign that maybe the country is
going to do something about the woeful state of its infrastructure – and do it
in a relatively transparent and honest process.
Asia
Sentinel
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