Sorrows growing more each day in Syria

Althought the far distance of Syria to the Philippines may make us feel insulated regarding events developing in that county, the Internet, news and social sites, make the events vivid and just nearby whenever we browse the web!

We are moved by this news item Los Angeles Times: Syria activist who shared horrific images of Syrian government crackdown in bloodshed killed

The citizen journalist who was able to upload chilling videos to youtube was killed by shrapnel in his besieged neighborhood in the tempestous city of Homs and the last video was about him.




Syria is witnessing the killing more of its bright young minds every day! We will not be surprised if the country slides into chaos and violence rule the days in that country, We hope that the citizen journalist did not die in vain.

The difference between leaders of Germany and of the Philippines

Click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Wulff

The president of Germany, Christian Wullf who served during the period 30 June 2010 – 17 February 2012, resigned due to allegations of corruption commited while he was still prime minister of Lower Saxony.

Read that! Mere allegations! Here our impeachment court will NOT accept mere allegations!


In the same article, it was mentioned that a premier and former Interior minister stumbled over a scandal involving free travel paid by a travel group company.

Compare with Corona who digs in, exposing himself to hold secret dollar accounts and local peso deposit to the tune of 20 million pesos plus!

In Japan, most leaders will resign or commit hara-kiri. Filipino leader are made of cheese.

Is Joker Arroyo guilty of fear-mongering?

After Corona, the honorable judge-senators might be next! That, is according to the amazing Joker Arroyo, who played a prominent role in the impeachment trial of the former president Joseph Estrada.

inquirer.net: After Corona, Senator Arroyo fears Malacañang will investigate senator-judges

There are now three investigations into Corona's account: AMLAC,BIR and the impeachment trial itself.

Excerpt:


In short, three investigations simultaneously have been conducted against the Chief Justice. I raise this point my esteemed colleagues, we are acting as judges…As of now, it is Chief Justice Corona and then tomorrow it is one of us if we offend Malacañang,” Arroyo said during the trial.

“If we do not follow Malacañang, they can proceed against us for the information gathered through the AMLC. It is a disturbing thought,” Arroyo added.


Yes, Senator Arroyo should be disturbed but if only he engaged in his own money laundering or keeping his wealth in secure dollar accounts. We cannot sympathize with him on this one. You see, Joker was given a cushy position in some government owned corporation.

He has nothing to fear if he is CLEAN!


AMLC- Anti Money Laundering Council.

Poor Iggy! His body is still in London.

We do know that Iggy, Jose Arroyo, has been relied by the first family often to be the "fall guy" in some hot cases involving helicopters, mysterious bank accounts and others.

Now that he has fallen dead due to a heart attack, his body still remains frozen in some faraway London morgue. I think I even read that English officials are calling on the feuding Iggy Arroyo members(a former wife, a mistress) to clear up the custody battle, a legal impediment to bringing him(dead body) home! Even his daughter cannot claim her father's body.

Such is the fate of honorable but very rich congressman of the third district district of Negros Occidental.

It is more than twenty days already! Enough! Even I, a Filipino, will feel a little shame about this macabre event.

Once more, it turns out that the annulment of Iggy's first marriage was not even registered! Iggy is morbidly lucky that he is now dead and need not face the spectacle of two women fighting over and claiming his dead body.


Further reading:

visayandailystar: Ibuna, Iggy’s daughter win custody of his body
Hopefully this will bring an end to the battle for Iggy Arroyo's body.

inquirer.net: Annulment of Iggy Arroyo’s first marriage not registered — civil registrar



abs-cbnews.com: Iggy Arroyo's body to remain in London a little longer.


Battle for custody of Iggy Arroyo's body continues


All links provided in the public interest. Copyright owners of original sources may contact this blogger via comments, if they dont want links to their stories.

Open Dollar Accounts! Religious leaders demands.

The law on dollar accounts secrecy applies only to foreigners to encourage investing in the Philippines, and this does not apply to Chief Justice Corona, who is being subject to impeachment. The law requires a written permission from the depositor(Corona) for the information to be divulged. We see that Corona, who has an MBA and once worked in a bank, uses the banking system for hiding his wealth from the PUBLIC.

A group calling itself, Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines has come out in the open urging the impeached Chief Justice Corona to open his dollar accounts.

We dont know much about this group. But you can visit its web site at http://amrsp.org

This follows on the earlier call for the same demand by bishops.

We hope that the growing clamor will force the Chief Justice to REALIZE that he has lost on the Filipino PUBLIC, who did NOT vote for him, but was appointed by a president GMA who has dirtied her hands on so MANY Corruption and Bribery, ELECTIONEERING cases. Corona is now eating the fruits of his blind obedience to a president, whom history will judge a corrupt one. And Corona has become corrupt ALSO.


Further reading:
Open dollar accounts, Corona urged

Bishops call on Corona to open bank accounts

Corona is blocking the quest for truth!

If Corona has nothing to hide, then he should have his dollar accounts information open to the public. Just the starting and ending balances should be enough to satisfy the growing din for more upfront transparency from the Chief Justice. He is now blocking the search for Truth!

Were if not for this impeachment trial, we would not have known how rich Corona has become. He trusted that an Supreme Court internal memo created in 1989 would have shielded him. But the hiding of SALN records from the public violates in spirit the Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials. Let us not forget that Corona has exerted efforts via recommendations or being the ponente in some cases of removal from government service lower ranking public servants due to inaccurate SALN filing!


Corona has been forced, by less fortuitous turn of event to face the fact that his SALNs have been divulged in the Senate by a fearful Clerk of Court, exposing him to charges of gross DISHONESTY.

Now what remains for the prosecution panel in tackling Article 2, is the opening of his supersecret dollar accounts. As we understand it, the law was meant for foreigners to invest their dollars in the Philippines not for a native Filipino like Corona to hide his hidden wealth!

In spite of this private and secret dollar hoard,this fact is PROOF enough that by his sheer gross dishonesty by Corona, displayed for all to see in his SALNs, should be SUFFICIENT to declare him guilty of loss of public trust, and hidden wealth.

Simple corrections to the SALNs is closed to Corona for the simple reason the Supreme Court never gave a chance to people convicted of filing false SALNs.

A ressurrected mudslinging attack on Pnoy

My interest was piqued by a post in Negros Bloggers, a Facebook group about a letter from a supposed Atenean classmate of Pnoy calling himself Tomcat.

What was amazing was that the contents of the letter, reposted without attribution, was published TWO damn years ago!

Click on
http://manilareview.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/noynoy-aquinos-classmate-reveals-all/ if you want to view the contents.

Chief Justice Corona keeps forgetting HE is the ONE being impeached!

chief Justice Corona is once again resorting to slinging mud against his critics, foremost of which is the president, Benigno Aquino III!

This time, he chided the president CJ to Aquino:
Keep off trial, prove mental fitness to lead "

We remembered that these charges were leveled at Pnoy, a nickname the president wants to be called, during the last presidential elections. Of course the majority of people voted for him and this alone should be enough to shut up his mouth about PNoy! He does not, but he does shut up about his dollar and even peso deposits!

Now, the defense panel is busy defending the CJ peso accounts, saying that the the mulitmillion peso accounts which were closed last December belong to his wife's corporation! How come it was under HIS name? Does this not smack of legal prejudice since there is a family legal squabble among the heirs of the Roco-Quidote-Basa families?

He even alleges that the case of the poor government court interpreter:

He said it was wrong for the President to compare him with Davao court interpreter Delsa Flores, who was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 1997 for failing to declare in her SALN her ownership of a stall in a public market.

The Chief Justice explained that the President was again ill advised by his legal team since Flores was dismissed not because of dishonesty in SALN but due to issue of double compensation from the court and the Panabo municipal government.


To which we say wow!!! Here is an extract from In the Know: Lowly court employee sacked over market stall not declared in SALN



The high court referred the matter to the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) for evaluation, report and recommendation.
The OCA subsequently found Flores guilty of dishonesty and of failure to report her business interest, and recommended her dismissal.

Beyond reproach

The high court agreed with the OCA’s findings and recommendation.
It said Flores’ failure “to disclose her business interest, which she herself admitted, is inexcusable and is a clear violation of Republic Act No. 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees).”


Do you read it???! ...failure to disclose her business interest!!

This only means that Corona is a lying Chief Justice.

The Chief Justice is guilty of double speak when he ignores that it was the non-filing of SALN of a stall property which precipitated the court's action. The fact that she was receiving extra compensation was only secondary.

This further adds to the heavy weight on the non moral fitness of Justice Renato Corona to stay as Chief Justice.

Corona is,with an MBA and a former bank officer, using the banking laws to hide his hidden wealth. Now, criminal can follow a corrupt chief justice by transferring their peso accounts to dollars. (it does not pay high interests however), but it does make our country a refuge for dollar salters, and tax evaders, and a bastion for corruption!

Thanks to Corona, our country is again in the international news for such unseemly shameful titles.

Only in the Philippines!

Further reading:

inquirer.net editorial:In due course

Do UST and Corona have a mutually beneficial relationship?

I was looking for Amado 'Jake' Macasaet's column and the Google search engine somehow produced from the interrelationships between web sites, this gem http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2004/oct2004/124250.htm.

In this case, the Supreme Court, through its Third division, has set aside a Court of Appeals ruling,on October 18, 2044, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS, petitioner, vs. COURT OF APPEALS AND PRISCILLA TIONGCO CANICOSA, respondents.


Now, dont get us wrong. We only publish a fact that UST, which conferred on Corona a doctorate in law, without the requirements of a published dissertation, had a favorable decision penned by the Supreme Court justice, Renato Corona.

Further reading:

twitter.com elmarjay>

Will Chief Justice Corona deny he has a family with a mistress?

We are somewhat perplexed that rumors of the Chief Justice just surfaced lately. The name of the lady is Eva and the Chief Justice was even rumored to have two kids with her.


We challenge the chief Justice to personally publicly deny in strongest terms that the rumors are UNTRUE, and not to depend on clueless SPOKESMEN or the impersonality of texting.




Further reading:

journal.com, feb 16: corona has kids with other woman?

Excerpt:
SUPREME Court Chief Justice Renato Corona has been accused of maintaining an illicit love affair with a woman, with whom he allegedly had children in his hometown Batangas.

But Corona quickly denied the allegation, saying it was just another “black propaganda” by his political enemies.

“That’s not true. It’s a black propaganda,” he replied in a text.


gmanetwork.com, feb. 15: Defense lawyer on Corona's rumored mistress- We believe in his integrity.

Trying to understand Sen. Santiago's justification of the TRO

The author is NOT a lawyer. But hes is trying to understand Senator's Miriam Defensor's Santiago support for the TRO:

1. First Ground: Last Clear Chance Doctrine Obedience to the TRO preserves governmental stability, while disobedience precipitates a constitutional crisis
If we have a choice between stability and crisis, the wiser choice is always national stability. This solution is analogous to the legal doctrine of "last clear chance" in the law of torts. A tort, as distinguished from a crime, means a civil wrong, for which the remedy is damages. Under this doctrine, the most common example is an automobile collision. If plaintiff was negligent, nonetheless he will win over the defendant, if the defendant had the last opportunity to prevent the harm, but failed to use reasonable care to do so. In the present impeachment case, it is the Senate which has the last clear chance to avoid a crisis, by obeying the TRO.

Our take:Clearly the lady Senator is presenting us rationale which can be used a FUTURE textbook example, but what crisis is the Senator talking about? A constitutional crisis created by a Supreme Court to build enmity between the Impeachment Court and Supreme Court ? Actually it is more of a battle between those who want the truth out and those who want the truth to be hidden.

2. Second Ground: Judicial Power Includes both Justiciable Questions and Political Questions
Under the Constitution, the judicial power is vested in the Supreme Court. This judicial power has two components: 1. Justiciable questions, which the Court defines as "actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable;" and 2. Political questions, which the Constitution defines as "grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction." Thus, the "political question doctrine" no longer applies under the 1987 Constitution. Under this discarded doctrine, a court should refuse to decide an issue involving the exercise of discretionary power by the executive or legislative branch of government. Assuming that the power to issue subpoena concerning foreign currency deposits is discretionary with the impeachment court, still the Supreme Court has power over this political question. Because the US Court has no provision similar to ours, American javascript:;cases on impeachment and the political question doctrine do not apply in this country. Out take: Our legal luminaries would like to use or NOT use American doctrine as needed to support their biases.

The lady senator I thnk forgets that the Impeachment Court is a a different animal from the Supreme Court!! The Impeachment Court only comes into existence when there is an impeachment case, and its behavior is more of political (non-criminal) question.

3. Third Ground: This Impeachment Court is not Authorized to Violate the Law

The law on secrecy of foreign currency deposits describes this secrecy to be "absolute," except ONLY AND ONLY WHEN the depositor consents. Congress made this law. The lawmakers should not be the lawbreakers. Instead, the lawmakers should, if necessary, amend the law.

Our take: The senator grossly misinterpreted the absolute secrecy rule regarding foreign deposits. Firstly, this secrecy applies to foreign holders, NOT native Filipinos who holds dollar accounts. Now we see that the Senator is opening herself to charges of coddling powerful syndicate criminals from the Philippines simply by transferring peso holdings to dollar holdings.

4. Fourth Ground: The Theory of Checks and Balances Prohibits this Impeachment Court from Claiming an Exception for Itself
Under the theory of checks and balances, each branch of government has the ability to counter the actions of any other branch, so that no single branch can control the entire government. The Constitution allows one branch to check the excesses or choices of another branch. Do we mean to say that this impeachment court is free of any check or balance? Then it becomes almighty! Under the Constitution, this impeachment court has no authority to study its own navel. When the impeachment court obeys the Supreme Court TRO, this does not mean that one is superior over the other. It merely means that the Constitution is supreme over all branches and agencies of the government. The Constitution provides that: "The Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment." The phrase "sole power" means only that impeachment shall not be conducted by any other branch or agency. The phrase "to try and decide" means only that the Supreme Court cannot try or decide the impeachment case. Some people seem to be confused that judicial review of impeachment procedures is equivalent to judicial determination of the outcome. But this does not mean that the Supreme Court has the power of judicial review over all constitutional questions. It only means that the SC cannot exercise full judicial review, but it retains the power of the most minimal judicial review. This is a result of the theory of checks and balances.

There is no problem about the Impeachment Court ignoring TROs as it is a creature of the constitution to try impeachment cases involving erring public officials! Sorry to disagree, but regarding impeachment cases , the Impeachment Court is SUPREME! Any senator-judge who disbelieve this simple logical implication should step down.

5. Fifth Ground: Disobedience to the TRO Violates the Defendant's Human Rights
Separation of powers was conceived to protect individual rights. Judicial review is an integral part of separation of powers. Accordingly, minimum judicial review of the exercise of the impeachment power is observed, in order to ensure that no individual right is being violated. It has been said that the individual right at risk in an impeachment trial is a federal judge's potential loss of position, including the independence he or she is guaranteed. MWe do not agree with this. A criminal must know that his/her rights will be taken away if proven that he violated a law.
6. Sixth Ground: In at Least Two Previous Cases, The Supreme Court Ruled That It Has Power of Judicial Review Over Impeachment Cases.
The two cases are: Francisco v. Nagmamalasakit, 415 SCRA 44 (2003) and Gutierrez v. House of Representatives, 643 SCRA 198 (2011). Francisco involved the filing of the second impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. The Supreme Court ruled: "The Constitution did not leave the matter of impeachment to the sole discretion of Congress - it provided for certain well-defined limits or "judicially discoverable standards" for determining the validity of the exercise of such discretion, through the power of judicial review." Gutierrez concerned the impeachment of the Ombudsman by the House of Representatives. The Supreme Court ruled: "The Court finds it well within its power to determine whether public respondent committed a violation of the Constitution or gravely abused its discretion in the exercise of the functions and prerogatives that could translate as lack or excess of jurisdiction, which would force corrective measures from the Court." (With Dennis Carcamo) The Impeachment Court decision should not be subject to judicial review. Otherwise, we have the spectacle of decisions from the Impeachment procedure subject to the silliness of non-finality (by reconsdierations)

Our feeling is that the lady Senator justifications
will result in the degradation of the status of the Impeachment Court. She should get out of it and concentrate in her work in the International Court Council or try to get herself nominated to the Supreme Court.


I

Is the Supreme Court a playground for a bully like Estelito Mendoza?

Our curiosity was aroused by this snippet on the flip-flopping case, re PAL vs flight attendants. See Rappler.com:Did Corona particpate in the FASAP case?


The SC decision came after Philippine Airlines management lawyer Estelito Mendoza wrote the Court 4 times in 2011. Mendoza questioned why the second division issued a decision on the case when it was the third division that handled previous pleadings related to the legal dispute.


Just this??!!!, and SC stoops down to reconsider(flip-flop)? Of course, Estelito Mendoza knows the behavior of the Supreme Court during his time as Solicitor-General in the Marcos era.

Has Corona been sufficiently unmasked as morally unfit to be Chief Justice?

Please read first the following link: Stop proceeding vs me-Corona aks SC


The seat of the Chief Justice is getting hot for the embattled Renato Corona. In the last 13 days of the impeachment trial, the Filipino public was treated to a spectacle of wrongful and missing entries in His SALN declarations. In fact, the SALN would not be even divulged if the defense panel got its way!

We are now wondering how Corona got to pay for his real estate investments, which amount to more than 30 million pesos on a low public servant salary for twenty years!

Yesterday, the prosecution started to treat Article 3 about "flip flopping", i.e., entertaining of reconsiderations to supposedly FINAL DECISIONS. Nothing is final to the Supreme Court as long as Corona is in charge. Not only did the Corona court displayed flipflopping in the PAL case, but also in the declaration of Cityhood of several "NEW CITIES".But the PAL case is a real egg thrown at the Supreme Court. Perhaps insulated in the history of the Philippines of any entity (congress, senate, public, workers, etc.) NEVER questioning how the Supreme Court acts or judge on cases, the Corona court got so careless especially it its hasty issuance of STATUS QUO ANTE order on the Merceditas Gutierrez impeachement case and the issuance of a faulty TRO on the foreign travel of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.


According to the Rappler report,

1. The impeachment complaint is "null and void" because it was transmitted without due notice and hearing to the Chief Justice
   
2. The impeachment court "gravely abused its discretion" amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in retaining paragraph 2.3 of Article 2. (The latter refers to Corona's properties allegedly not included in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth or SALNs. This is in violation of the Anti-graft and Corrupt Practices Act.)
   
3. Paragraphs 2.3 and 2.4 of the impeachment complaint are based on "pure speculation and conclusions," which cannot be considered ultimate facts to support a complaint. (Paragraph 2.4 refers to Corona's alleged ill-gotten wealth, acquiring assets of high value and keeping bank deposits with huge deposits.)
   
4. The presentation of evidence on charges of alleged corruption and unexplained wealth violates Corona's right to due process.
   The impeachment court committed "grave abuse of discretion" amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in issuing the subpoena for all bank accounts, as requested by the prosecution. -
   

We comment on point #1. The very fact that the the Chief Justice was even present on the first day of the impeachment trial and the fact that he has an active defense panel in the 14 days of the undergoing impeachment trial, invalidates this point. How could he have attended the first day of the trial?

As for point #2, we can only say that any article opening into his "hidden" wealth is naturally repugnant to the likes of Chief Justice Corona. It does give the game (trial) away!

It is hight time for Corona to get out of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has been tarnished as an institution by one man, Renato Corona, and as long as he is Chief Justice will continue with his amazing wealth generation scheme (the man has an MBA!).

At this juncture of the impeachment trial, Corona cannot and WILL NEVER explain how he got his wealth in order to buy luxurious out of the orinay public servant reach, nor how the Supreme Court flip flopped on final decisions.


So what is the answer to our question? Has Corona been sufficiently unmasked as morally unfit to be Chief Justice?

Tremors rock Negros Island

I have set the times now in the iPad Quake program. Hopefully the figures are now correct.

A series of tremors rocked Negros Island today, resulting in the deaths to at least 40 or more people. The tremors also caused cracks in numerous buildings. The number of fatalities is expected to rise. Here is our quakes program cut out of the epicenters of the earthquakes.

Here are the times(local Manila) and magnitudes, depth and distance

Date	Time(Local)	Magnitude	Depth	Distance
Feb 6	11:40:19AM	M5.2	36.5km	576km
Feb 6	6:33:37AM	M5.8	15.1km	581km
Feb 6	5:10:24AM	M6.0	15km	574km
Feb 5	11:20:03PM	M5.6	34.6km	560km
Feb 5	11:03:28PM	M4.8	34.8km	582km
Feb 5	10:49:16PM	M6.8	46.6km	573km

Here are some photos, from Facebook and shared publicly!

Updated: here is a publicly available album (also in fAcebook:
Fanatics Club

Latest news: Inquirer.net: 48 dead, 92 missing in Negros quake--Army

Photos from around the world.

• Seattle PI slide show
  

  First 18 of this slide show are for the Negros Earthquake.
  
  

1. Cracks in the streets of Guilhulngan.

2. Malobolo Bridge, Vallehermoso

3. Guilhulngan/La Libertad
4. Tayasan

5. Guilhulngan
   
   
   

Further reading:

• Philstar: Death toll in Visayas continues to rise
  
  
• Inquirer: Death toll in strong quake rises to 40

Photos are copyright by their respective owners. They were posted in Facebook with public access. If you are the owner of any photo, contact us if you dont want it to be included in this article.

The ten-million peso problem: Will Senator-judges allow opening of bank accounts of CJ Corona?

Of course, personal bank accounts are very private and account numbers, transaction records, and even balances should not be made known to anyone else, as they may subject the owner to unnecessary threats or dangers from criminals.

But bank secrecy laws do not normally apply to litigation cases! And we do have a case here. It sounds like a fishing expedition to the defense panel, but take note that CJ Corona won a 1 million peso raffle, and the stunning costs of his real estate investments, should be backed up by bank records.

But this is also a damn it if there is small cash entries/balance and damn it if there is a big cash entries/balance in his accounts.

It the accounts listed are small, then Corona is guilty of graft for accumulating more than what he can afford. If the accounts listed are too large, then Corona is guilty of non-disclosure of assets. Either way he is fried in the oil of his own words:

The fact remains that at the heart of our sovereign mandate is the people’s trust in the courts. The people’s trust, however, is not confined to physical infrastructure. Improving human infrastructure is essential in maintaining integrity which in the final analysis gives us the right to judge. Hence, corruption in the judiciary, whether real or perceived, is particularly insidious and reprehensible.


A corrupt judiciary is totally unacceptable as it severely handicaps the legal and institutional mechanism designed to curb abuses in government. As such we shall continuously cleanse the court’s ranks by strengthening the integrity of the judiciary and raising it to the highest level possible. I believe that a member of the judiciary who is found guilty of dishonesty should not only be dismissed from the service but also disbarred. No ifs, no buts.


The ten-million peso in the title is an allusion to the cost incurred for holding the trial. Hope it is worth it, and the Senate, Congress, and judges/lawyers will learn much from this trial.

Corona knew what he was doing in filing his SALNs!

Raissa Robles' latest article
Corona’s “not intentional” mistakes in his SALNs

The above article is again an eye-opener, and describe the educational and previous work/employment background of the Chief Justice Renato Corona:

1. Corona has an MBA degree from Ateneo de Manila University, and Master of Laws degree from Harvard, and a PhD degree(without dissertation) from the University of Santo Tomas.
   
   
2. Corona wrote on tax and commercial law issues for his column “Tax Corner” in the Manila Chronicle many years back!
   
   
3. His work experiences:
   
   1. Worked as a lawyer for the Development Bank of the Philippines.
      
      
   2. Worked as senior vice-president and general counsel of the Commercial Bank of Manila.
      
      
   3. Worked as a senior officer of the Tax and Corporate Counseling Group of the Tax Division of Sycip Gorres and Velayo (SGV & Co).
      

Raissa reminds us that

One can safely assume that CJ Corona knows what the word “cash advance” means. He knows all about and can distinguish the assessed value, fair market value and the acquisition cost of real properties. He knows all about the life and death of corporations. In fact, the proof of his knowledge on these subjects stare us right in the face. He was the ponente or the magistrate who penned that very thorough ruling on why the Marcos wealth was both ill-gotten and unexplained. That particular ruling demonstrated CJ Corona’s absolute mastery of the SALN and income tax returns (ITRs).

And Raissa let us also hear again the words of a speech of Chief Justice Corona:

The fact remains that at the heart of our sovereign mandate is the people’s trust in the courts. The people’s trust, however, is not confined to physical infrastructure. Improving human infrastructure is essential in maintaining integrity which in the final analysis gives us the right to judge. Hence, corruption in the judiciary, whether real or perceived, is particularly insidious and reprehensible.

A corrupt judiciary is totally unacceptable as it severely handicaps the legal and institutional mechanism designed to curb abuses in government. As such we shall continuously cleanse the court’s ranks by strengthening the integrity of the judiciary and raising it to the highest level possible. I believe that a member of the judiciary who is found guilty of dishonesty should not only be dismissed from the service but also disbarred. No ifs, no buts.

So any discrepancies of filing his SALNs and ITRs were intentional! The Prosecution should be prepared to use this knowledge of the background of Corona, including his speeches when discussing the SALNs next time.

Let Corona be hoisted in his own petard of public legal pronouncements and knowledge of financial matters, including taxes and SALNs.

Dishonesty in public service, a lesson for Chief Justice Corona

Click on

Inquirer.net, 3 feb 2012,5:34 am : Dishonesty enough to convict Corona, says prosecution


We wish to emphasize the following excerpts:


Quezon Representative Erin Tañada, another deputy spokesperson of the prosecution, said the Supreme Court did not consider dishonesty a petty crime when it upheld the dismissal from office of a Bureau of Internal Revenue executive in a 2008 decision.

The executive was found to have accumulated properties and investments grossly disproportionate to her income and earning capacity as a government employee, and not disclosing these in her SALNs.

Tañada said the high court, in the case of Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Peliño, ruled that “dishonesty is classified as a grave offense the penalty of which is dismissal from service at the first instance.”

“So if someone of a lower level can be dismissed on the basis of dishonesty, what more the top magistrate of the Supreme Cour?” he pointed out.

We agree with the prosecution panel on this one. Let us save the people's millions of the people's tax money on continuing the impeachment trial. Let Chief Justice Corona begone!

If it is not unexplained wealth, then what it is?

From Rappler:

A very surprisingly vocal Sen. Lito Lapid figured in the following exhange this afternoon:



"Hindi na siguro kung mahalaga kung nagsarado ang kumpanaya o hindi. Nangutang ba?" Lapid asked Umali. "Kanina pa kayo tanong nang tanong, isang oras na tayo dito, yun lang pala gusto niyong palabasin kung inutang, in-advance o ni-loan?" an exasperated Lapid said.

But Lapid's line of questioning revealed where the prosecution was apparently headed: to tackle evidence of Corona's alleged ill-gotten wealth.

"Cristina engaged in real business pero wala naman pong record sa SEC, BIR at lahat. Ito po ay nakapagtataka kung saan nanggaling ito. Ito po tinatanong namin, ini-establish namin, ito po ay unexplained wealth," Umali explained to Lapid.


But defense lead counsel Serafin Cuevas was quick to object. "There is a resolution of this court - both verbal and written - denying prosecution from presenting evidence of unexplained wealth."

Enrile reminded the prosecution to adhere to the rules of the impeachment court.

"I caution everybody to respect the rulings of this court. We have already ruled that paragraph 2.4 is not permissible to receive any proof. Kindly adhere to the rules of this court," Enrile ordered, banging his gavel. -

In spite of the fact that Sec. 2.4 was stricken out of consideration by the Impeachment Court, enticing proofs of ill gotten wealth rears its ugly head and appear from time to time in the technicality minded Impeachment Court.

The Court is giving itself a dilemma: If it is not unexplained wealth, then what it is?!!!

The world wonders!!!