In Due Time

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The impeachment proceedings against him have resumed, and Chief Justice Renato Corona remains under heavy fire. As if the ignominy of being among the few public officials in the history of this country to be impeached were not enough, he is also the subject of an investigation by the Ombudsman regarding alleged bank deposits amounting to a whopping $10 million.

 The embattled chief magistrate, whose chances of being impeached yet again, if ever the bumbling prosecution and his all-star defense manage to secure an acquittal, are growing with every additional report of more undeclared wealth, is also being criticized for his failure to disclose to the public his latest statement of assets, liabilities and net worth that he has filed with the office of the Supreme Court’s clerk of court.

 Why Corona, who has proclaimed that he will face all the issues hounding him “in due time”, continues to hide behind a ruling by the late Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan that allows the SALNs of SC justices to be kept as secrets that he can easily reverse if he really wants his Supreme Court to be transparent, we can only guess, but his actuations, so far, have done nothing but bolster suspicions that Renato Corona is using his shaky position to hide secrets from the same public that he has sworn to serve.

With Corona not keen on testifying in the impeachment court so he can ultimately clear up all the issues that remain muddled by an incompetent prosecution and a defense that leans heavily on technicalities to hide the facts more than reveal them, the public has no choice but to make their own conclusions.
          Perhaps Corona, who was appointed into his position at the stroke of midnight and enjoys a term that should see him in power even after the current president steps down if he is not somehow impeached, does not feel any obligation to assure the public that their Chief Justice is a man of integrity and unquestionable moral standing.

Corona said that he would disclose all “in due time.” The impeachment trial provides the proper forum and with the Senate President wanting to finish the proceedings within the month, now is the proper time. Will the Chief Justice face not only his accusers, but also a nation that would like its supreme court to be led by upright men, and testify to prove his innocence, or will he continue issuing blanket denials and hide behind reversible SC rulings and legal technicalities?  When is “due time” for Renato Corona?*