Very dirty play

EDITORIAL

Blatant demonization of Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona by the House prosectors has become much too much of a dirty play, no doubt enjoyed by Noynoy, who obviously has given his allies his blessings to destroy Corona to the hilt.

Not certain at this time of getting a Senate conviction for Corona, Noynoy and the his prosecutors are bent on destroying Corona to the point of getting him to quit his post, to make way for his choice of CJ who may either be Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, junior Justice Lourdes Sereno, or if an outsider, as he claimed, the buzz is that his choice for the next chief justice is — hold your breath — Leila de Lima, his current Justice Secretary, one who may know her election laws, but certainly not one who can be termed as an acknowledged constitutionalist, given her arguments in the high court.

The latest dirty trick being played by the prosecutors is to let loose to the media and solely intended to portray the chief justice as corrupt and guilty of having amassed illegal assets in nine years as a Supreme Court Justice, consisting of some 45 properties.

An even dirtier trick being played by the prosecution is to ask the Senate to subpoena Corona’s family members and for them to bring documents pertaining to “all transfer certficates of title and condominium listed in Annex A” which is a letter to lead prosecutor Niel Tupas Jr. from the Land Registration Authority (LRA) with “all documents pertinent to the acquisition, disposition, ownership and possession or enjoyment of propertuies covered by the TCTs and CCTs, such as deeds of absolute sale, conditional sale, donations, assignment and transfers, among others.

The idiocy of it all is the fact that these prosecutors are demanding the accused and even his family members who are not accused in the same case, to provide “proof” of their ownership of what is clearly manufactured evidence, as the LRA, which is under Noynoy and his Justice department, came up with double entries, to make the list of “Corona family properties” longer, apart from including even properties that do not even carry the name of Corona or his relative, such as one in the name of Ismael Mathay, another in the name of Burgundy Realty Corp.; another in the name of National Housing Authority; yet another to family members of Constatino Castillo, simply because a daughter of the CJ is married to a Castillo. More: A TCT in the name of Eugenia Coronado as well as a Dante Encina.

The question is, why would the LRA issue a list of TCTs and CCTs that are not even the registered names of the CJ and pass these off as his properties, if, in the first place, this same agency, per its own records, show that these TCTS and CCTs are still in the names of persons other than the CJ? And why are there double entries?

The answer is obvious: The intent of both the LRA and Tupas and his prosecutors is to make it appear that the CJ has amassed so much properties in his nine year stay in the high court, which also translates to both the prosecutors and LRA itself, a government agency manufacturing evidence against the CJ. And this is what Noynoy and his aides call the daang matuwid?

That the prosecutors know that their “evidence” against Corona is patently manufactured which is a trick as low as it can get, is evident in their call for the Senate court to subpoena the family members of Corona, Corona himself and for them to even produce these TCTs and CCTs!

If the prosecutors and the LRA “evidence” is solid, why should they call on Corona and his family members to produce these documents? Why not have the LRA official and the documents included in the list subpoened instead, since the “evidence” comes from them?

Obviously, the prosecutors, aided by the LRA, have manufactured evidence against the CJ, which makes the statement of the CJ factual.

The CJ said. “They are trying to make me look like a thief. I am not a thief like them.”

True.