Corona is not Judiciary and Judiciary is not Corona

As a Filipino citizen and a taxpayer, I can no longer stay silent about Chief Justice Renato Corona’s insistent referring to his impeachment case as “the fight of the Judiciary and democracy.” For a non-lawyer like me, the message that he is sending is that he, Corona, is the Judiciary and any attack on him is an attack on the Judiciary. Hello, the charges filed against Corona, as anybody with an IQ above 50 can see, are all about acts committed by Corona personally and not by the Judiciary he purports to represent. For, pray tell, was it the Supreme Court that bought the Bellagio property for an amount that is at least half the market price? Was it the Supreme Court that bought the other properties registered in his name and/or wife? Who is required to submit his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN)? Corona or the Supreme Court?

If we go by Corona’s logic, any attack on any of the congressmen would be an attack on Congress, and any attack on any senator is an attack on the Senate. I wonder where he learned this from? Is this what his professors in Ateneo taught him? Or is this what Corona learned from the university that granted him a PhD and is now hard put to explain how he earned that degree without admitting that it circumvented its own rules with the lame justification that it was an exercise of “academic freedom”?

The Judiciary, just like any institution or any organization for that matter, be it a homeowners’ association, a civic club or even a golf club, can only be made stronger if it is rid of members who have been proven to be unworthy of their membership. The process of determining whether a member is worthy to be a member is a cleansing process by itself, for the members themselves as well as for the organization.

I therefore urge this midnight appointee of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: Go and face your accusers to the best of your ability; and with the help of the best legal minds that your money can buy (legally earned or otherwise) and with the prayers and influence that a particular sect can provide, defend yourself as Renato Corona, not as the Judiciary.

—VICTORIO CABANGON VALLEDOR,

Sta. Maria Street,

Payo, Catanduanes