With the turnover of Chief Justice Renato Corona’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs), the impeachment court has begun to retrace the steps he took before he assumed the top post of the Supreme Court in 2010.
Although tedious, the process allows the nation to see how this jurist—who has described himself as being of a family “of no ordinary means”—walked the corridors of power under two administrations in a political and legal career spanning two decades.
After two days of delay, the presentation of evidence and witnesses on Article 2 of the impeachment complaint, which began on Wednesday and continued yesterday, has enlivened the heretofore insipid proceedings. It also set into motion the prosecution’s strategy to lay the basis for Corona’s conviction of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, and graft and corruption.
Article 2 alleges that Corona violated the Constitution and betrayed public trust “when he failed to disclose to the public” his SALNs.
On Wednesday, the impeachment court compelled Supreme Court Clerk of Court Enriqueta Esguerra-Vidal to turn over an envelope containing Corona’s SALNs covering the period 2002-2010 (first as associate justice and later Chief Justice of the high court).
This allowed the prosecution to obtain what could turn out to be the smoking gun necessary to prove its claim that Corona had amassed assets beyond his means.
The Chief Justice has admitted ownership of only five of the 45 properties linked by the prosecution to him and his family as alleged proof of his “ill-gotten wealth.”
A cursory reading of the SALNs will yield the impression that Corona’s rise to power was, to a great extent, intertwined with the political career of his appointing authority, then outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
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