Corona conviction draws
jubilation, grief in courts
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday was met with jubilation by many who called it a victory for the Filipino people, and with grief, especially by members of the judiciary who had been calling for his acquittal, in Bacolod City.

Twenty senators, including Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile, found Corona guilty of violating the Constitution and betraying public trust by failing to disclose his wealth.

Only three - Senators Joker Arroyo, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos Jr. - voted to acquit the chief justice.

A Bacolod resident was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment yesterday for possession of shabu.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Edgar Garvilles found Jessen Nepomuceno Bautista, alias Pablo Bautista, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Republic Act 9165 or possession of dangerous of drugs and sentenced him to suffer a prison term of 12 years and one day as minimum to 15 years as maximum.

Garvilles also ordered Bautista to pay a fine of P300,000 and to be committed to the national penitentiary for the service of his sentence.

The giving of educational kits to children is not only realistic but also a symbolic reminder to parents that children should be in school and not working in farms, Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, said yesterday at the turnover of school supplies to 100 children at Brgy. Antipolo, Pontevedra town.

Brgy. Antipolo is one of the 80 barangays in the country with high incidence of child labor and one of the pilot areas for the implementation of the child labor campaign of DOLE.

She said the campaign for child labor-free barangays is one of their priority programs to address the problems of child labor, adding that education is the only investment parents can place in their children.