Voting 20-3 The Senate Convicts CJ Corona

Five months and 44 trial days after 188 congressmen signed, filed, and endorsed to the senate, the impeachment complaint against the chief justice, Renato C. Corona, the senate, sitting as an impeachment court, voting 20-3, hands down a guilty verdict.

It has been an invaluable educational – legal to be more precise – experience for the Filipino people. To students and practitioners of law, and the academe, this provides the quintessential and only conclusive precedent. To future congressmen-prosecutors, senator-judges, respondent, a case law they can glean from for guidance and direction. To the man on the street, a better understanding of this quasi-political and public proceeding; as the senator-judges say, it is in fact, the Filipino people, by their representation, who are judging the respondent.

The decision was well-anticipated, even as speculation brewed on how the reelectionists would vote, primarily because the issue is simple; whether the chief justice is still fit to head a co-equal branch of government. Free of the stringency, rigidity, and legal niceties of a criminal case, owing to the sui generis character of the proceeding, all but three arrived at a conclusion that resonates with the majority of the public who followed this saga. To that extent, the impeachment court has carried out its duty in tune with the pulse of the people they represent.

Conviction was sealed on Article II of the Articles of Impeachment, thus voting on the remaining two other articles, 3 & 7, has been moved for and resolved dispensed with.

The Crux Of The Guilty Argument.

The Constitution commands, under Sec. 17 thereof, that a public officer submit a declaration under oath of his assets, liabilities, and net worth, in the manner provided by law. That implementing law is RA 6713, The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officers and Employees, which pronounces, under Sec. 8 thereof, not only the obligation on the part of public officers to disclose all assets, business interest and financial connections, but the right of the people to know the same.

These have been the bases of the prosecution’s submission that the chief justice culpably violated the constitution, and betrayed the public trust when he admitted in open court that he had USD2.4M and PHP80M in his bank accounts, most, if not all, were not reflected in his SALN.

The Crux Of The Defense Argument.

The defense seeks shield behind RA 6426, the Foreign Currency Deposit Act, which grants the privilege of absolute confidentiality of deposits held in these accounts, and the theory of commingled funds. Its position is that the chief justice is justified in not disclosing his assets held in foreign currency, because he relied in good faith on the said law; and the peso funds, because he only held them in trust for Basa-Guidote, and his children.

The Verdict.

The policy of the state is disclosure, non-disclosure is the exception. It is elementary that for one to obtain excuse from compliance with an obligation, it must present its basis in law so clear and categorical that it leaves no room for contrary interpretation.

In the instant case, the Constitution and RA 6713 unequivocally command a duty, while RA 6426 confers a mere privilege. Between a duty and a privilege, a public official must choose the performance of a duty than the exercise of a privilege. Further, what RA 6426 prohibits is for banks to disclose the accounts; not for accountholders-public officers to comply with the mandate of the Constitution.

Reliance on a law, or misinterpretation thereof, as a defense is a hard sell considering that the respondent is the chief justice, whose interpretation of the laws has, in many occasions, vested rights and imposed obligation, if not meted punishments, on countless of parties to litigations. How do you even reconcile this with the decision on a lowly court interpreter who’s been removed from office simply because she failed to disclose she had a stall in a public market?

In the words of the Presiding Officer, the man of the hour,: “he has been measured, and he failed.”