Higher standard for CJ

The Feb. 23 editorial of the Inquirer is absolutely correct: The Corona impeachment case should be “resolved to the satisfaction of the people.”

A chief justice should be held to a higher standard of ethical behavior than ordinary government employees. If Chief Justice Renato Corona and his Supreme Court unceremoniously dismiss, as it had dismissed, from the service lowly workers whose only fault was that they failed to accomplish their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth accurately, then why should the impeachment court let Corona go scot-free even if he is found to have misdeclared, undervalued or failed to declare multimillion-peso high-end real estate properties and fat bank accounts though he was already a member of the high court?

Corona no longer commands the people’s respect because he has obviously used his high government position to enrich himself. In so doing, he has dragged the entire judiciary to the gutter. It is Corona, not President Aquino, who has debased the independence and autonomy of the judiciary. Thus, Corona has lost all moral authority to lead the Supreme Court.||

The Inquirer editorial is right: Wisdom, not legality, should prevail in the ongoing impeachment trial, and the national interest demands that the Chief Justice should not stay a minute longer in his high post.

—RYAN PUZ, [email protected]