Judging the Chief Justice by Atty. Sadian

7/31/2019 Judging the Chief Justice by Atty. Sadian

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CONTENTS NATION WORLD BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY

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Judging the Chief Justice

At its climax, the trial of Renato Coronasets a high standard in publicaccountability and transparencyBy Atty. John Carlo Gil M. Sadian

STRATEGY POINTS

The Chief Justice's testimony focused theSenate on one issue: Should he be removed fornot declaring $2.4 million in deposits?

Corona's appearance before the nation and hisa new standard for accountability

The Senate verdict will have immense impact onthe Judiciary, our constitutional democracy, and

the political landscape

GMA News

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The

CenSEI Report

see page 16

Dollars on center stage.

see page 8

Articles

Corona maintains his conscience is

clear.




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charges

see page 12)

Family feud over real estate. As a

GMA News video



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Only four dollar and three peso

accounts.

Commingled family and corporate

funds.

that

has

that his

children

their

a single

the bigger

the

the bigger

the interest

Waiving

bank

secrecy

with

a big if.

DZMM video




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Prompted by news of a probe into Chief Justice Renato

Coronas dollar accounts, the Defense asked the Senate

to subpoena Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, who

is conducting the investigation, and those who signed the

complaint she is looking into. The result of her probe had, in

fact, already been referred to the House Speaker for another

possible impeachment complaint once the one-year bar

expires in December.

In her testimony, retired High Court magistrate Morales

alleged in a PowerPoint presentation that Corona had at

least $10 million in transactional balances through 82

dollar accounts from April 2003 to February 2012. She also

elections and the impeachment last December.

The presentation, according to Morales, was based on raw

authenticate those documents, although one of its three

members, Insurance Commissioner Emmanuel Dooc,

. The propriety, and even the legality

been questioned.

Nonetheless, Morales made these

in her presentation, which was produced by Commission

on Audit Commissioner Heidi Mendoza:

branches/places

the

Ombudsman revealed that two separate deposits of

$500,000 were made to a Bank of the Philippine Islands

(BPI) Acropolis account on May 12 and May 14, 2004. On

to $293,645.23 were made to a BPI San Francisco del

cjpanganiban.ph

The Ombudsmans testimony: The whole truth or a lantern of lies?By Atty. John Carlo Gil M. Sadian



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Monte dollar account. Morales also said that on the week

the Chief Justice was impeached, a total of almost $3.4

million were moved from Corona's alleged dollar accounts

in BPI, Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank), and Allied Bank.

Thus, between April 14, 2003 to December 22, 2011, the

amounted to a staggering $12.15 million. Note that the

balances but rather they are transaction balances.

Corona quickly disputed the PowerPoint presentation,

calling it a lantern of lies. According to the Chief Justice,

The number of accounts alone is at best ridiculous. Her

PowerPoint diagram is a lantern of lies which only messed

up her presentation, contrary to what some believe now as

damning evidence. He eventually used his own PowerPoint

presentation to rebut Morales allegations when he took

the witness stand.

a statement

saying, Either she does not know what she is talkingabout or is purposely misleading the Impeachment Court

at the bloated numbers?When asked by defense lead

accuracy of the data, Morales herself admitted, I would

not have known that because the report was furnished to

Checking out a column by Rigoberto Tiglao in the Philippine

Daily Inquirer, the Inquirer reported, in a separate article,

that bankers uniformly said that an estimate of the

Supreme Court chiefs bank account balances made

by adding up all transaction values over time would be

said that Tiglaos column was on the correct track.

Besides citing the gross error of summing up transactions

to come up with balances, the columnist had argued that

many of the 82 accounts were probably created for short-

term investments like time deposits and money-market

placements, each of which would require a separate bank

account, to be closed once the investment matured.

In his Senate testimony, Corona disclosed that he had

only four dollar accounts containing $2.4 million. With his

waiver allowing banks and government agencies to revealhis assets and business connections, probers can now

check who is telling the truth: the Ombudsman or the man

she investigated.

Date Amount in $ Transaction

December 12 470,978.80 trust fund contributionplacement investment

December 12-13 135,359.01 Encashment

December 13 388,771.22 purchase of manager's check

December 13 12,888.67 debit memo

December 15 465,000.00 securities sold

December 15 343,192.62 Withdrawal

December 19 487,998.09 purchase of manager's check

December 19 22,998.09 excess of deposits

December 20 687,648.55 debit memo

source: TCR compilation

PTV




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From court to hospital.

barred the

Presiding

Back in trial with a waiver and no

ifs.

he

GMA News video



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How much money does the CJ have?

regarding

sub judice




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March-June 2010: Arroyo appoints CJ Corona

as Aquino protests. The Supreme Court ruled in

De Castro vs. Judicial and Bar Councilthat thenPresident Gloria Arroyo could appoint the next Chief

Justice. Two months later CJ Renato Corona was

sworn in. President-elect Benigno Aquino III disputed

the appointment; on June 30 he took his oath before

Associate Justice Morales, who dissented in the

March 17 ruling.

July-December 2010: Aquinos Truth

Commission is ruled unconstitutional. On July

30, President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 1creating the Truth Commission to investigate alleged

corruption in the past administration. In August, the

House opposition questioned the constitutionality of

the Truth Commission. On December 7, 2010, the

Supreme Court declared EO 1 unconstitutional for

violating the equal protection clause, but suggested

revisions to make it abide by the charter.

September 2010-April 2011: High Court stops,

then clears Gutierrez impeachment. The Supreme

Court issued a status quo ante order stopping

impeachment proceedings against then Ombudsman

Merceditas Gutierrez, but lifts the stay in February

212 Congressmen

voted to impeach the Ombudsman. On April 29, ten

days before her Senate trial was to begin, Gutierrez

resigned.

October 14, 2010: TRO on EO 2 stirs Aquinos

The Supreme

Court issued a status quo anteorder stopping

implementation of Executive Order No. 2 removing

election ban on presidential appointments tookeffect. Aquino criticized the ruling as blocking his

reforms and warned of chaos and paralysis in

government.

November 15, 2011: Aquino government

disobeys TRO on Arroyo travel ban. The Supreme

Court voted 8-5 to issue a temporary restraining

order (TRO) on the Department of Justice (DOJ)

watch list barring former President Arroyo and her

husband Jose Miguel Arroyo from travel abroad.

Chief Executive vs. Chief Justice: Road to impeachment

ABS-CBN/YouTube

By Mary Grace V. Pulido



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judge Jesus Mupas orders Arroyos arrest for alleged

electoral sabotage, an unbailable offense.

November 2011-April 2012: Supreme Court

orders Hacienda Luisita distributed. The Supreme

Court ruled 14-0

President Aquino

accepts the decision on his Cojuangco familysestate, citing two objectives: empowerment of the

farmers [and] just compensation for the landowners.

On April 24, 2012, the High Courts

1989 prices, denying the clans 10-billion demand.

December 4, 2011: The Chief Executive lambasts

the Chief Justice to his face. President Aquino

lashed out at CJ Corona at the 1st National Criminal

Justice Summit. In his speech, the Chief Executive

lambasted the Chief Justice as a midnight appointee,and repeated attacks on High Court rulings against

his EOs. Coronas calm response: Just let it be. Its

December 12, 2011: House impeaches

Based

on a 20-minute Powerpoint presentation, 188

congressmen signed the 57-page Articles of

Impeachment against Corona. On January 12,

President Aquino praises his partymates for the

Corona impeachment.

RTVM

ABS-CBN/YouTube




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by the

The Palace

Issues for oral arguments.

the

in

GMA News video



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and

Atienza

the




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the eightArticles

The CenSEI Report

ARTICLE I. Respondent betrayedthe public trust through his track

record marked by partiality and

subservience in cases involving the

Arroyo administration from the

time of his appointment as Supreme

Court Justice which continued to his

dubious appointment as a midnight

Chief Justice and up to the present.

Your Honor: ImpeachmentCharges, Responses, andEvidence By Atty. John Carlo Gil M. Sadian

Documents

Judging the Chief Justice by Atty. Sadian