If you catch your domestic help in possession of your lost valuable belongings but you came to know about this through illicit means, will you still trust her and keep her under your employ? When a chief justice is untruthful in his sworn statements about his wealth, concealing his loots in various bank accounts because he is fully aware of the existence of the bank secrecy law, will you still repose the highest level of trust in him?
For a lay people like me, an impeachment trial is a process designed to remove constitutional officials deemed unfit to perform the duties and responsibilities of their respective offices as demanded by the highest ethical standards. Thus, impeachment is about accountability. Renato Corona is a lawyer, a chief justice at that. He ought to know the mandate of the Constitution that public officials like him “must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”
His legal defense team deals on technicalities and evades the most important issue, which is the trust of the people that the Chief Justice must enjoy. The majority of the members of the House of Representatives representing majority of the Filipino people have spoken when they transmitted to the Senate the Articles of Impeachment against Corona.
It is my ardent belief (and hope) that most of the senators, sitting as impeachment judges, would keep in mind that the issue centers on public accountability, nothing more, nothing less.
With the revelation of his multi-million peso bank accounts, doubts about Corona’s integrity have surfaced. Former Sen. Raul Roco once said that a public official must not only be in fact clean, he must also be perceived clean. There are only few options left for Corona—to resign, to be impeached this year, or to be impeached next year or the next.
I may agree that facing the impeachment proceeding is a sign of his being a “barako,” but I believe that quitting would be a more “kabarakuhan” act for the sake of the nation.
—CARLITO D. BISA,
lito_bisa@yahoo.com