ShareThisChief Justice, family beef up security, use bullet-proof car
By ALFRED G. GABOT
Manila Bureau Chief
Special to Fil-Am Megascene
MANILA – Chief Justice Renato Corona has been receiving many death threats prompting him to tighten security for him and members of his family. And as a precaution, Corona has started using a bulletproof car, using his personal funds and not government funds.
Corona supporters made the disclosure as his impeachment trial neared its 30th day at the Senate with his defense lawyers presenting on Tuesday Congressman Tobias Tiangco of Navotas City and two other witness.
Tiangco told the Senate Impeachment Tribunal on the second day of his testimony that President Benigno S. Aquino III and leaders of the House of Representatives headed by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. allegedly exerted a “pattern or scheme” “to intimidate or exert undue influence” on members to support the filing of the Corona impeachment complaint like delaying or withholding his pork barrel. The President and the House leaders denied the allegation.
Tiangco recounted how the House cooked up the impeachment complaint during a majority caucus on December 12, the same day Corona was impeached.
The lawmakers were not allowed to make any questions on the complaint which he and many other congressmen never read and fully understood, he said.
Tiangco’s testimony triggered warning from Speaker Belmonte and Deputy Speaker Neptali Gonzales Jr. that he and other lawmakers who will testify against the House may face moves to oust them as congressmen.
Tiangco stood firm on his stand, pointing out that it should be Belmonte and Gonzales who should be ousted for allegedly railroading the impeachment complaint without even presenting evidences.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago later said that under the Constitution, some of the congressmen who threatened Tiangco and pressured him to sign the impeachment complaint may have committed graft and practices act.
Tiangco agreed, saying those who threatened and pressured him to sign the impeachment complaint could be held liable for corrupt practices act.
House prosecution spokespersons Reps. Miro Quimbo and Erin Tanada said Tiangco was merely sour graping when he testified in the Senate tribunal.
In reaction, Gonzales said Tiangco undermined the mass signing of the impeachment complaint by his colleagues who crossed party lines in
order to hold Corona accountable for wrongdoings
Other witnesses Tuesday were Araceli Bayuga, chief judicial staff officer of the Supreme Court Cash, Collections and Disbursement Division, and Demetrio Coronado Vicente.
Bayuga presented SC records showing that Corona had received a total of about P22 million in salaries and benefits since 2002, to prove that he could well afford the properties he had bought.
Bayuga also denied a claim made by Bureau of Internal Revenue chief Kim Henares that Corona has no income tax returns from 2002 to 2005 because the Supreme Court did not submit its “alpha list” to the BIR for those years.
Henares appeared before the Senate impeachment court last January 25. She was presented by House prosecutors.
Bayuga’s testimony was made by the defense in relation to Article II of the articles of complaint, which accuses Corona of failure to disclose his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) and failure to include in his SALN certain properties, including his peso and dollar deposits.
Vicente told the tribunal, with contracts backing him up, that he bought parcels of land in Marikina City from Corona’s wife Cristina and her sister Marietta for more than P1 million in 1990. The property, which remains under Cristina’s name, was included in the chief justice’s SALN in 1992.
Vicente said he has was not able to transfer the property to his name because he ran out of money to pay the transfer tax because he built a house and suffered stroke twice.
He pointed to the court that he had built a house for more than P2 million in the lots he bought from Cristina and Marietta. He said he paid Cristina and Marietta out of the P3.5 million proceeds of the sale of his property in Tandang Sora, Quezon City. Part of the proceeds was used for building his house.
Vicente said at least two justices had visited him ly in his house and could prove his claim including Ombudsman Conchita Carpio- Morales whose husband is the first cousin of his (Vicente’s) wife Estrella Morales.
Another magistrate, associate justice Mariano del Castillo also visited him in his house, Vicente said.
Sen. Ralph Recto, at the latter part of the hearing, said unanswered questions surrounding the sale of the property should prompt the Chief Justice’ to take the witness, stressing he is the only one who can explain why the property was declared in his July 1992 SALN when it was already sold to Vicente.
The Senate court, meanwhile, rejected the issuance of a subpoena on Cavite Rep. Crispin Remulla, Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas and other key officers and members of the House of Representatives to testify in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.
The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, cited the principle of inter-parliamentary courtesy as a reason in denying the request for the issuance of subpoenas made Monday by Corona’s camp to lower house members as “adverse witnesses.”
In a ruling, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the court cannot compel or even prevail upon, by compulsory process, any member of the House of Representatives to appear before them.
“In the same manner that we have accorded the same courtesy to the members of the Supreme Court when there was a request from the prosecution to subpoena them, we shall accord the same consideration and inter-parliamentary courtesy to the members of the (lower) house,” he said during the initial stage of yesterday’s proceedings.
Enrile also cited the provisions of Article 11 of the Constitution that the lower house have sole power to initiate all cases of impeachment.
“And in view of this, it is the understanding of this presiding officer that any impeachment that is made against any impeachable officer is an act of the House of Representatives through its representatives and therefore, given that situation, this presiding officer has decide to rule that we cannot compel by compulsory process any member of the House of Representatives to appear as witness even as an adverse party,” he said.
The prosecution panel also filed their opposition to the said request, invoking the previous rulings of the court on inter-departmental courtesies.
On Monday, the Senate impeachment court denied the desire of defense lead counsel former Justice Serafin Cuevas to dismiss the impeachment complaint, saying the court has already denied similar motion on January 18, two days after the trial formally started. ”As much as we want to accommodate the desire of the defense, this presiding officer, with the permission of the impeachment court, regrets to deny the desire of the defense,” Senate President Enrile said in his ruling.
Before the defense took its turn to present witness and evidence at the resumption of the impeachment trial, Cuevas manifested that the impeachment complaint was defective for lack of verification.
”To us, it will appear there is no valid complaint,” Cuevas said when asked by Senator-Judge Joker Arroyo if the defense counsel is asking the Senate to dismiss the complaint.
Cuevas said the defense would take the issue on the impeachment complaint’s validity before both the Supreme Court and the impeachment court.
Enrile, however, explained that only the impeachment court has jurisdiction to try and decide impeachment cases.
”Only this court has the jurisdiction, the SC has no jurisdiction to try and decide impeachment cases,” Enrile stressed.
Enrile said proper processes have been done, including the notification of the respondent when the Senate received the impeachment complaints the next day when it was signed by 188 congressmen on December 12 last year.
”This court followed the principle of due process demanded in a case like this,” Enrile stressed.
Senator-Judge Miriam Defensor Santiago said the defense already accepted the impeachment court’s jurisdiction.
”If you’ve already accepted the jurisdiction of the court, you cannot turn around and repudiate the acceptance of same jurisdictions. Your hands are already tied,” Santiago said.
Senator-Judge Franklin Drilon said the impeachment court had categorically validated the verification of the impeachment complaint on January 18.