Conrado De Quiros is correct in saying that Chief Justice Renato Corona is a “huge roadblock on the daang matuwid, one that government has to remove first before getting to Arroyo.” (Inquirer, 12/20/11)
I was shocked to find out from the impeachment complaint signed by 188 congressmen that Corona is alleged to have misused the Judiciary Development Fund. If he cannot adequately explain this during the Senate impeachment trial, then former President Erap Estrada must have been right after all in calling some justices and judges “hoodlums in robes.”
De Quiros is also on the right track when he pointed out that “Corona’s and Arroyo’s fates are intricately linked. Corona’s impeachment will be Arroyo’s trial in proxy form. That is so because Corona is the mere extension of Arroyo.” He could not have said it any better. And the best evidence that Corona is the mere extension of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the revelation by Sen. Franklin Drilon that Corona’s record in the Supreme Court is a perfect 19-0 in favor of Arroyo. What can you expect, since Corona had always been Arroyo’s factotum from the time she was vice president until she sat in Malacañang for nine excruciatingly long years?
But De Quiros reserves his most trenchant criticism toward the end of his column: “Arroyo was a fake president, he is a fake chief justice. Arroyo came to power by the grace of Garci, he came to power by the grace of Arroyo.” The civil society groups who have been referring to the Chief Justice as “CoronArroyo” hit the nail right on the head. Corona deserves to be ousted from his lofty position for taking us for fools.
—KRISTEN ALFONSE,
skyisblue_20@rocketmail.com