Weakened Corona attacks lawmakers, President
Aquino, almost collapses
By the
time he took his leave from the chamber where the Philippines Senate is seeking
to convict him on corruption charges, Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona
was already a picture of a defeated man, far from the powerful figure many
thought he was or he thought he was.
And on
the 40th day of his impeachment trial, Corona may have just started his own
political demise. He denied that he possessed illegally acquired funds, saying
he would open his bank accounts for inspection if the 188 members of the House
of Representatives who voted to impeach him would do the same. He accused
President Benigno Aquino III of conspiring to remove him from office.
Impeachment proceedings must be initiated by the Congress under Philippine law.
After
reading a lengthy statement, Corona abruptly asked to be excused, leaving the
Senate without permission and before he could be questioned. Senate President
Juan Ponce Enrile ordered security guards to shut the building to prevent
Corona from leaving. The 63-year-old chief justice later returned in a
wheelchair and his lawyers said he felt weak because he was diabetic and did
not intend to flee. He was later brought to the intensive care unit of a Manila
hospital and his spokesman Midas Marquez said that his diagnosis was “a
possible heart attack.”
Corona
stripped himself of all judicial decorum and courtesy when he began to speak in
defense of himself. He insisted on reading an opening statement and proceeded
with a lengthy narrative of his own appreciation of things. Despite being
courteously reminded to proceed with his testimony, Corona lashed out at his
perceived political and personal enemies.
As
promised, he was accorded all the respect and allowed to do his act despite
continuing objection from the prosecution, which was barred from interrupting
to manifest their objection to hearsay and irrelevant testimonies of the Chief
Justice.
Corona,
ironically, resorted to the very tactics he is accusing his detractors of. He
resorted name-calling, even washing dirty linen in public, desecrating the
memory of the dead and using the language of the bully, and exposed his true
character – a man not worthy of his position.
He also
displayed a manifest lack of the intelligence required and expected from the
highest magistrate of the land with the way he conducted himself after
delivering his scathing monologue. He took all 23 senator-judges, including
politically-reborn Juan Ponce Enrile, for a ride and led them into believing
that he is fully submitting himself to the jurisdiction of impeachment court
only to arrogantly walk away with a smug on his face.
What a
pathetic sight it was when Corona was finally brought back to the Senate
impeachment court. Contrived or not, his being led into the room in a
wheelchair instantly reminded everybody of his principal benefactor Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo who was also denied exit (escape, too?) at the Manila International
Airport. It seems flight was always the option for those who enjoyed power, too
much of it, during the previous government.
It now
matters no more whether Corona is guilty or not of all the charges hurled
against him by the House of Representatives. By his own doing yesterday, he
proved he really did not deserve one day as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of the Philippines.
Corona
came into the Senate session hall waving his hands to the public and his few
supporters. When he arrived, he was full of swagger. He left limping, though,
in a wheelchair.
Edwin
Espejo
Asia
Sentinel
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