BISHOPS DIFFER STAND ON CORONA’S TRIAL

      Bishops have different stand on the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona when the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) told the senator-judges to respect the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court recently.

            “There is a law of secrecy for dollar accounts. It is more academic for the Senate to respect the TRO,” said CBCP president Jose Palma during an interview over the radio.

            Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa City in Batangas said also that the impeachment trial should be stopped, “to save the country from institutional disaster.” According to him, officials accused of wrongdoing should be tried in court.

            “The charges of corruption must be done in another forum and when proven guilty, the Chief Justice should be convicted and barred from any government position. The country, would then be saved from unscrupulous politicians,” added Bishop Arguelles.

            However, other bishops contradicted those stand like Bishop Deogracias Iniguez of Caloocan who said, “The impeachment court is the right venue for searching out the truth on Corona’s possible offenses. The impeachment must be finished to get the truth,” he said.

            The palace can’t believe  that the Catholic bishops have sided with the defense team in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona on the issue of his dollar accounts.

            “Unfortunately, we did not hear from Archbishop Jose Palma to ferret out the truth, which is normally the call of the CBCP,” lamented Undersecretary Abigail Valte in the vernacular during a radio interview. She further explained that just like everybody else, they only wanted the truth to come out with regard to Corona’s statement of assets, liabilities and network. She nonetheless acknowledged that it is up to the senator-judges to decide whether to abide by the freeze order.

            “The senators sitting as judges in the impeachment court do not exercise legislative functions because that is where the principle of co-equal and separate branches of government comes in,” Valte further expounded.

            However, Valte agreed with former justice undersecretary and now defense counsel Ramon Esguerra, that Corona has not yet been convicted of any crime so he should be presumed innocent.

            At this point, she argued that Corona holds a high and very sensitive position in the judiciary and therefore, he should allow the impeachment court to open his dollar account if he really has nothing to hide

            “Their defense is that, there is nothing wrong in having a dollar account.           That is correct and there’s nothing wrong. But what makes it wrong is that he did not include it in his SALN,” Valte concluded.# ANT