CJ: ‘Noy sought me out for EO1’s OK by SC’

CORONA BARES CARPIO’S TERM SHARE DEAL OFFER

CJ: ‘Noy sought me out for EO1’s OK by SC’

By Benjamin B. Pulta and Fernan J. Angeles

Chief Justice Renato Corona is now on the offensive and Malacañang on the defensive, as yet another radio interview yesterday had the top magistrate disclosing that President Aquino personally sought an audience with him for the purpose of drumming up Corona and the other high court associate justices’ support for their ruling favoring Aquino’s first ever Executive Order, or EO1, known as the creation of the Truth Commission, so worded to single out crimes alleged to have been committed by former President Gloria Arroyo.

The CJ also bared the term sharing between him and Associate Justice Antonio Corona, offered by Aquino ally, Sen. Teofisto Guingona, an offer which could not have been made without the nod of Aquino.

Speaking in an interview with radio station DWIZ, Corona said the meeting between him and Aquino transpired in the home of one of the President’s sisters, Ballsy.

He added that he politely advised the Chief Executive to revise a provision in the then proposed commission.

He stressed that the questionable provision had singled out the former President and her allies accused of plundering the national coffers which would violate the equal protection law.

Corona’s advice was snubbed by Mr. Aquino as the Executive Order creating the commission was still released with the said questionable provision.

EO1 created the Truth Commission to investigate allegations of graft and corruption during the Arroyo administration. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., was being tapped by Aquino to head the body.

It was also later learned that Davide, who was an Arroyo-friendly Chief Justice, having played a major role in the ouster of then sitting president Joseph Estrada through his intentional collapse of the impeachment trial, and along with his judicial sidekick, then associate Justice Artemio Panganiban, swore Arroyo as president despite the presidential office not having been vacated, was the author of EO1.

Ten members of the 15-man Corona court voted to declare null and void EO 1 while five justices dissented.

The majority agreed that EO 1 violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The decision was penned by Associate Justice Jose Mendoza.

Corona reiterated his claim that Guingona brokered a deal proposing a term-sharing agreement with Justice Carpio.

The said term sharing agreement was first reported last February.

Under the terms of the agreement, Corona disclosed Guingona was persuading him to avail of an early retirement and share his remaining term with Carpio. The offer was bared over lunch at the house of Guingona III’s father, former vice president Teofisto Guingona, in New Manila sometime in March, last year.

Initially, Corona said Guingona wanted to meet him in a restaurant, but he (Corona) declined because he doesn’t want to be seen in public in a huddle.

“He proposed the deal to me, asking me: ‘what do you think about retiring early and sharing your term?’ He mentioned specifically Justice Antonio Carpio. It was very clear that he mentioned the name of Justice Carpio in that term sharing deal,” he said.

“I told him. That’s against the Constitution. Nowhere does it speak of term-sharing. That’s not legally possible,” “ he added.

The other day, Corona said a smear campaign was circulating against him, and insinuated that this may be the handiwork of the poweful Villaraza, Cruz, Marcelo and Angangco law firm of which Carpio was a founding member.

Corona stressed that various issues thrown at him in the recent days may have all been coming from Carpio’s “The Firm.”

“This is just a part of the the professional demolition job being done on me. You cannot take that suspicion away from me (suspecting Carpio as being behind the smear campaign) because it is common knowledge that he (Carpio) has for a long time, wanted to be the chief justice...It is his (Carpio’s law partners who are moving against me,” Corona said.

CVC Law issued a press statement denying that it has anything to do with the smear job on the Chief Justice, saying that Justice Carpio has long resigned from the firm, but added that in the “event of the conviction of”Corona, a Chief Justice with integrity, independence and probity will be his replacement.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesmen admitted that the Chief Justice had indeed met with the president, barely a month after Aquino assumed the presidency.

But Edwin Lacierda denied other details of the Cjs disclosure, particularly that of the alleged consultation of the President on the CJ’s advice on the Truth Commission, as Lacierda accused Corona of trying to peddle lies in a desperate effort to get public sympathy.

Lacierda also clarified that Aquino never wanted that meeting even as he claimed that a retired SC Justice had arranged the supposed meeting allegedly requested by Corona himself.

Lacierda said the meeting “was just a proof of the President’s consistency in expressing willingness to reach out to the Supreme Court on judicial reforms.

Lacierda said he asked Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, who was present during the meeting, if the Truth Commission was discussed. He said Ochoa replied in negative.

“I spoke to Executive Secretary, he doesn’t recall (the President) asking the advice from the Chief Justice on that point,” he said.

Lacierda said Aquino agreed to meet with Corona because he wanted to foster a good working relationship with the Chief Justice and also to reassure him that there was nothing personal when he did not greet him during the inauguration in Luneta.

“(What the CJ said was) absolutely not true. To the President’s recollection, they never talked about the Truth Commission. The meeting, which he didn’t ask by the way, delved on the need to have an independent and fair judiciary”, Lacierda said.

In another interview given by Corona, he was quoted as having said:“I am a member of the judiciary and as such, we will always have to take into account the evidence… Okay, you go ahead with it (Truth Commission), but let us see to it that everything falls in order and that we won’t be in violation of the Constitution and other existing laws.”

Corona described the half hour meeting as “not extraordinarily friendly”.

Malacañang also denied sending over a political ally now sitting as a Senator-Judge at the ongoing impeachment trial, to offer the Chief Justice a compromise which later turned out to be a term-sharing agreement with Carpio.

Reacting to the many radio interviews that Corona attended, Lacierda described Corona’s frequent stops in various television and radio stations as part of an effort to solicit public support amid what he claimed to be a dipping approval rating that the chief magistrate has got from the time the impeachment case was filed against him.