Corona must go

By Ernesto Hilario / About Town

THE 1987 Constitution explicitly prohibits “midnight appointments,” or appointments made toward the end of the President’s term. Section 15, Article VII is very clear: “Two months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, a President or Acting President shall not make appointments, except temporary appointments, to Executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.”

Chief Justice Renato Corona should have been aware of this prohibition, and should have declined his appointment by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the dying days of her regime.

As it turns out, Corona is now in the hot seat for being a midnight appointee—and for one other main reason: his perceived partiality or bias for Arroyo.

Newsbreak magazine examined Corona’s record as an associate justice and later as Chief Justice—as Sen. Franklin Drilon did—and found that he had inordinately favored Arroyo in the cases brought before the court.

In two of these cases—the creation of the Truth Commission and the investigation of similar allegations of bias for Arroyo on the part of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrrez—Corona sided with Arroyo.

In declaring the Truth Commission as unconstitutional, the Corona-led court effectively blocked the thorough investigation of plunder allegations against Arroyo. The court also effectively blocked the investigation of Gutierrez, a law-school batch mate of Mike Arroyo, and kept Arroyo safe from prosecution.

But for the President, the last straw was the November 15 TRO issued by Corona and seven other Arroyo appointees. The TRO against the watch-list order on the Arroyo couple would have allowed them to leave for abroad and thus make them beyond the reach of Philippine courts. The Arroyos could have flown the coop had immigration agents acting upon orders of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima not stopped them from boarding their flight to Singapore.

It’s not only Corona’s pro-Arroyo track record in the Supreme Court that’s been scrutinized. Corona had been the fair-haired boy of Arroyo when she appointed him chief of staff when she was still vice president. When she became President, she appointed him in various capacities: chief of staff, spokesman, and acting executive secretary. In other words, his entire professional career in the past decade or so had been intimately tied to Arroyo. Would you be disloyal to someone who had kept you in high positions in government?

Corona tried to dispute allegations of partiality toward Arroyo with his own counterattack against the President on December 14 in front of the Supreme Court. But I don’t believe this demonstration of judicial grandstanding endeared him to the people. With his hourlong harangue before a crowd of lawyers and judges that had declared a court holiday, Corona demeaned the position of Chief Magistrate with gutter language, name-calling and clear evasion of the core issues.

Corona’s line is that the President’s public statements against him and the subsequent impeachment complaint against him signed by 188 congressmen are an attack on the independence of the judiciary. But it does not necessarily follow that when you attack Corona, you attack the Supreme Court or the entire judiciary and a co-equal branch of government. Mr. Aquino questioned Corona’s integrity alone, not the integrity of other members of the judiciary or of the institution as a whole.

Corona has vowed to fight the impeachment complaint point by point. But what for? His integrity is already full of holes. Even if he is grilled by senators and is eventually acquitted, can he still effectively serve as Chief Justice? Sen. Serge Osmeña is right: Corona should resign and spare the nation a lengthy and arduous political process that could distract the government from addressing urgent economic issues.

New MOPC governor

Congratulations to Weber Shandwick President and CEO Mike Toledo for his recent election as governor of the Manila Overseas Press Club.

Attorney Toledo served as press secretary and spokesman of the Estrada administration. He obtained his Master of Laws degree (Public International Law) at the London School of Economics and Political Science through a scholarship grant from the British government. He finished his Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines.

Toledo was also concurrently appointed as spokesman by the MOPC led by its outgoing chairman, Philippine Star columnist Babe Romualdez. Also elected were Philippine Daily Inquirer publisher Isagani Yambot as incoming MOPC chairman and Manila Standard Today publisher Rolando Estabillo as president.

Over the years, the MOPC has expanded its membership to include not only members of the local and foreign media but businessmen, government officials and members of the diplomatic corps who share the same passion for upholding freedom of the press, and the free discussion and exchange of views on matters of national interest. 

Every year, the MOPC holds the “President’s Night” where the press as well as political and business observers eagerly await the President’s speech which is considered almost as important as a State of the Nation Address as it gives insights into the Chief Executive’s line of thinking on key policy issues. 

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com