Clear and present danger
Juan L. Mercado’s Feb. 4 column, “A whiff of danger,” warns of an impending constitutional crisis if the Supreme Court and the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, figure in a head-on collision over Chief Justice Renato Corona’s dollar accounts and the legality of the impeachment trial itself.
If ever there is a constitutional crisis, the blame lies squarely on Corona himself for using his position to debase the Supreme Court with his manifest partiality towards former President Gloria Arroyo and for amassing wealth grossly out of proportion to his lawful income.
The impeachment trial is the constitutional process to remove an official who is unfit to occupy high office. Should the Supreme Court, on Corona’s prodding, tread on dangerous ground and dare to stop the impeachment trial via a temporary restraining order, it would be asking for trouble that the nation can ill-afford.
Corona is singlehandedly bringing the nation to the brink of a crisis. He is a clear and present grave danger to the republic and our democratic system. Somebody ought to tell him that he is already the least trusted (read: most hated) among the top officials of this country.
—KRISTIAN M. LORENZO,
