Like Caesar’s wife

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

At first the suggestion came from only one senator. It was Senator Franklin Drilon who aired the view that Chief Justice Renato Corona should inhibit himself from the cases involving former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, citing his close connections with her even before he became the head of the highest court in the land.

The statement of Senator Drilon quickly caught the attention of Filipinos closely watching the developments in the charges being raised against the former President, involving not only allegations of graft and corruption, but also some that call for the most serious penalties, as the first one filed against her of electoral sabotage.

That one had not even been filed yet when there was a perceived attempt of the former president to get out of the country on the excuse that she would seek medical treatment abroad for an ailment that, impliedly, no medical doctors in the country could treat.

The suspected flight was aborted however, with the adamant stand of the Secretary of Justice to stop her and her entourage, in what is now being regarded as a defiance of a Supreme Court restraining order against such act. The swift filing of the electoral sabotage case by the Commission on Election, and the equally speedy issuance of an arrest warrant by a Regional Trial Court, successfully prevented such departure.

It has become clearer and clearer, however, that Supreme Court action on the cases involving Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, had been generally, or almost totally favorable to her. It must have been because of that, that information about the past links between the former president and the incumbent Chief Justice have surfaced, such as his being in her staff since the time she was a senator, a vice president and even as president. With that known, it has also become clear why she had insisted on naming him Chief Justice before stepping down as president.

There seems, therefore more than meets the eye in the cause of the strident voices now calling for the inhibition of Chief Justice Corona. Many other members of the bench have inhibited themselves from cases on less. Would he stake his reputation and life record for this, because, even if he insists he cannot be influenced, people may not be convinced?

Poet and dramatist William Shakespeare lived long ago, but he had words that still fit the situation when he said that somebody as prominent as Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.*