An all forgotten Senate pledge

Whatever happened to the pledge of the Senate to ask the Supreme Court to withdraw the temporary restraining order barring the opening of the dollar accounts of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona?

As I understand it from the manifestation of Sen. Chiz Escudero, the Senate voted 13-10 to “respect” the TRO, but the chamber would argue before the Supreme Court that Corona’s dollar accounts must be opened for comparison against the stated cash positions in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs).

Better yet, I think the Senate should set aside that earlier vote and just issue another order, this time forcing PSBank officials to just lay bare Corona’s dollar accounts or be jailed for contempt.

I am of the conviction that the Supreme Court has no right whatsoever to meddle in the impeachment trial of Corona. After all, its members are all impeachable officials who should not be allowed to save one of its own.

My thinking is that even in interpreting the law on Foreign Currency Deposit Units (FCDU), the Senate must reign supreme over the Supreme Court when it comes to its applicability in an impeachment case.

For sure, no law, not even the FCDU, is enacted to hide ill-gotten wealth or the fruits of criminal activities. So let the Senate be the judge on whether the FCDU provision on the confidentiality of deposits should be relaxed on the matter of Corona’s accounts.

—NOEL LAZARO, [email protected]