May 7, 2012
BY AMADO P. MACASAET
MALAYA
MALAYA
‘It cannot happen that an impeached Chief Justice who refuses to refute or demolish tons of documentary evidence against him will be allowed to walk.’
IMPEACHED Chief Justice Renato C. Corona maintains that he has nothing to explain as far as the $10 million bank deposit allegedly in his name is concerned.
We obtained documents detailing six different accounts with the Katipunan Branch of PSB. The deposits total to close to $3 million including the $417 million the documents say was in the form of outward remittance on Dec. 5, 20II.
Who is really lying between PSBank and the Chief Justice? To answer the question, the simple thing to do is issue a subpoena duces tecum to the head of the branch of PSBank on Katipunan ave., in Quezon City.
The branch official should be able to say whether such deposits exist or not. It he says there is none, he just might be caught lying. There is no way copies of the deposit documents would reach me and my friend Janus Bondoc of the Star if the source did not have original papers to copy them from.
Worth noting in the merry-go-round about these deposits is that the Chief Justice is denying their existence before the Office of the Ombudsman who wants an investigation.
Nothing to investigate according to the Chief Justice. If we buy this argument, then we must also believe that he has nothing to explain before the impeachment court as far as the dollars are concerned.
The Chief Justice is obviously taking us for a long ride. His trick or that of his lawyer is that what is alleged but not proven in the Office of the Ombudsman cannot be held otherwise in the impeachment court.
Therefore, he does not have to explain the accounts. Not even in due time, as he repeatedly asserts.
He has nothing to explain. There are no such dollar accounts. That is as far as the complaints filed with the Ombudsman are concerned.
The Ombudsman has a duty to investigate all complaints. The Chief Justice does not want to say anything because he claims the $10 million account does not exist.
We must make it clear here that the Ombudsman has no power to recommend the filing of information against the Chief Justice while the latter is sitting in office. He can be removed only the by Constitutional process of impeachment that he is now going through.
Therefore, it makes so much sense for the Chief Justice to deny having $10 million in deposits before the Ombudsman.
It should be clear in the mind of Mr. Corona that he cannot be convicted by the Sandiganbayan on the basis of information that the Ombudsman may file. The Ombudsman will not be that stupid. Former SC Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, now Ombudsman, knows that the impeachment case must be resolved before she can file or dismiss any complaint with the Sandiganbayan.
If there is nothing to explain or the Chief Justice refuses to explain his alleged dollar accounts before the Ombudsman, he may create a public perception that he is clean as a whistle although there are reams of documents proving he is not.
What the man may be trying to project is his innocence if the investigation by the Ombudsman should extend to the impeachment court. This argument is flawed.
Impeachment is the only process – apart from incapacity, illness or death – to remove the Chief Justice from office.
On the other hand, the Ombudsman is a fact-finding body that fights corruption. It does not rule on the information it files with the Sandiganbayan. Viewed in this sense, the denial by the Chief Justice having $10 million account is not remotely related to his impeachment trial.
If the senator-judges, the prosecution and the presiding officer of the impeachment decide to ask him to explain the same account, he would have no choice but to comply. After all, he has repeatedly said he will explain the account.
We find this confusing. He has nothing to explain before the Sandigan. But he will explain the dollar accounts before the impeachment court in due time.
His trick is probably to refuse to testify in his defense in the impeachment court to support the same refusal to say anything before the Sandiganbayan. That does not necessarily wash.
The impeachment court may well render a verdict of guilty on the doctrine of “nolo contendere.” The Chief Justice is not contesting the accusations against him but he is not admitting their truth or falsity either.
It cannot happen that an impeached Chief Justice who refuses to refute or demolish tons of documentary evidence against him will be allowed to walk.
Resignation is the more honorable way out. But since that route is not in his cards he may well face conviction on “nolo contendere” and proclaim later that he is a victim of injustice in the Aquino administration.
Little does the Chief Justice seem to realize that about 73 percent of the people want him convicted. His acceptance rating is a negative 15 percent. These are the hard facts that the senator-judges will have to grapple with if they find the Chief Justice not guilty.
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