Why is Corona afraid to testify?
At this late date, on the homestretch of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, the accused still refuses to testify in spite of calls from both the senator-judges and the public to do so. Only he can clear up the issues, said the senators. It is reported that the defense panel is presenting 10 witnesses in the trial which reopens today, but Corona himself is not one of them. Why? Corona is the best witness in his defense; he is the one person who knows everything. If his assets were acquired legitimately, then he can explain them to everybody’s satisfaction. So why is he afraid to testify?
“The Chief Justice is the only one who can respond to the issues and questions lingering in the minds not only of the senator-judges but of the general public,” Sen. Gringo Honasan said. “More than the senator-judges, he owes the Filipinos an explanation. We are only extensions of the will of the people.”
Defense spokesman Tranquil Salvador III said at a press forum: Why should he? The Constitution guarantees that a witness not be forced to incriminate himself. With tricky questions during the cross-examination, the prosecution might trick the Chief Justice to incriminate himself.
But why is he afraid to incriminate himself? Did he do something criminal? If he did not, then how could he incriminate himself?
“Due process must be followed,” Salvador said.
Actually, Corona is hiding behind legal technicalities. It’s an old lawyer’s trick: If the evidence is against you, resort to legal technicalities. And there is always a technicality that can be cited to block the presentation of evidence against you.
There is a saying that secrecy is the cloak that conceals guilt. And Corona is being very secretive. He doesn’t want his bank accounts opened. He doesn’t want to explain where the reported $10 million in his bank accounts came from. He has ordered Supreme Court employees not to release any document requested by the senator-judges or the prosecution panel.
He has filed a new statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) which he says explains his assets, including the mysterious $10-million bank deposits, but he refuses to show this SALN. What is a SALN for if it is going to be kept a secret?
The law mandating the filing of SALNs was passed precisely to ferret out unexplained wealth. It is supposed to be a public record.
Corona is even using the late Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan as a shield to justify keeping the SALNs of the justices of the Supreme Court a secret. He said it was the Supreme Court under Fernan which mandated that the SALNs of Supreme Court justices be kept secret.
This is just an excuse. The Supreme Court can reverse its own ruling anytime if it wants to. A decision that it made today can be reversed tomorrow. If it wants to reverse the ruling of the Fernan Court, it can. If members of the Corona court have filed truthful and accurate SALNs, they should allow the release of their SALNs to their employers, the people. If they acquired their assets legally, what is there to be ashamed of? What is there to be afraid of?
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Schools will reopen in a few weeks, and when 26 million students go to their classes, they would be confronted with the same problems that have hounded our educational system for decades: lack of classrooms, lack of textbooks, lack of teachers, lack of desks and chairs, lack of toilets, etc.
Soon, politicians will ask their parents and older siblings to vote for them. But what have they done for the schools and students to deserve their votes?
Why can’t our politicians and other agencies follow the example of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor). You must have read that the state gaming firm is spending the P1 billion, which was allotted for free coffee for gamblers, for the construction of 1,000 classrooms in public elementary and secondary schools nationwide.
This project, called “Matuwid na Daan sa Silid Paaralan,” is being done in partnership with the Department of Education and the Gawad Kalinga and volunteers from the beneficiary communities. This project will benefit about 50,000 students beginning school year 2012-2013.
Pagcor Chair Cristino Naguiat said that the funding for the school-building project came from huge savings in operational expenses since he took office. Also, Pagcor earned a record-breaking P3.03 billion in May 2011 alone. That amount has not been earned by Pagcor in 25 years.
The project taps the assistance of nongovernment organizations (NGOs). All structures have to follow standards and specifications issued by the DepEd.
What’s more, the project not only puts up classrooms but also inspires volunteerism, and communal respect for these structures. Would you vandalize something that you yourself or someone you know helped build with his own hands?
Thanks to the project, 50,000 Filipino students will have classrooms that are built to last, not only because they are made of concrete hollow blocks and galvanized iron roofs, but also because they are built by the community.
In addition to the school-building project, Pagcor did not forget the interiors of the classrooms. It provided an initial P100 million for the “P-Noy Bayanihan Project” in partnership with the DepEd, Tesda, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources. This other project will produce thousands of school desks from illegally cut logs confiscated by the DENR. Pagcor’s start-up money was used to retrofit existing Tesda and DepEd facilities. It will also be used to establish more woodworking facilities nationwide. Aside from employment opportunities in production sites, community development is also a goal of Tesda’s skills training programs.
