President Benigno Aquino III has taken a stand against Chief Justice Renato Corona because he wants judicial reform, he does not want to control the judiciary, Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

“The president wants a consistent, free and independent judiciary,” said Lacierda, who was in Bacolod City yesterday with Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte.

Lacierda was reacting to a question about the President’s support for the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“We need reform in the judiciary but in the end it will be up to the Senate to decide, he said.

Proof that the president is for an independent judiciary is that three justices he has appointed to the Supreme Court, have on several occasions voted against his position, Lacierda said.

Valte said they were not in Bacolod to make a pitch against Corona, they were in the city to discuss the work of the president and to listen to the concerns of the people.

Corona’s defense spokesperson Karen Gimeno and Rico Paolo Quicho will speak about his ongoing impeachment trial at the Benjamin Hall at 4th Street, Bacolod City, today.

Corona, who was perceived to be an ally of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, was impeached on December 12, 2011.

The Senate, which has convened as an impeachment court, began the trial on January 16, 2012.

Corona was the third official, after former President Joseph Estrada on 2000, and Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez in 2011, to be impeached by the House of Representatives.

He was appointed by Arroyo as chief justice of the Supreme Court, days after the 2011 elections. This was after the Supreme Court ruled that the president’s ban on appointments does not extend to the judiciary. The Supreme Court has since been accused of ruling unfavorably for the Aquino administration in cases concerning Arroyo.*CPG/CGS

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