Let the spirit of the law prevail in Corona’s trial
Senator-Judge Panfilo Lacson is right in saying that the Senate should admit as evidence all the revelations of witnesses and the documents on impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona’s unexplained wealth.
Why should the senator-judges give any weight at all to the position of the defense panel that all evidence gathered from allegedly questionable sources should be deleted from the records? In the first place, it has not been proven that Corona’s bank records are “fruits of the poisoned tree” and therefore inadmissible. How could the statements and documents presented by bank officers and registers of deeds be deemed inadmissible?
And even granting for the sake of argument that some documents, such as Corona’s bank signatures, are of doubtful provenance, does that negate the fact that Corona kept astonishingly fat bank deposits that he could not have earned from his lawful income of just over P600,000 per year? No sir.
It is very clear from the disclosures in the trial that Corona amassed unexplained wealth in the form of multimillion-peso real estate properties and bank accounts. The law mandates that unexplained wealth should be forfeited in favor of the state because it is presumed to be ill-gotten.
The defense should refrain from using the law to thwart justice. Filipinos should reject any such attempt to subvert the rule of law through legal technicalities. The spirit of the law should prevail at all times. There’s simply too much evidence against Corona to let him fly the coop.
—EDGARDO CAYMO,
