Summary (SAM)

The impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona began on January 16, 2012
after the Lower House of Congress passed the articles of impeachment to the
senate and approved last December 13, 2011. Betrayal of public trust by being a
midnight appointee, failure to report his Statement of Assets Liabilities and Net
worth, lacking of competency and fairness as per his pro-Arroyo rulings,, arbitrarily
reversing rulings on several cases with questionable circumstances, unfairly serving
as both investigator and arbiter for Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo, releasing
a temporary restraining order against the hold departure order served to
Congresswoman GMA and company without compelling her to follow the conditions
of the TRO and Graft and corruption for mismanaging the Judicial Development Fund
are the articles of the impeachment. The Senate has tussled repeatedly on whether
the impeachment trial should be held to the stricter standards of a criminal case, or
the more relaxed standards of an administrative case. On the 11 th day of trial, Sen.
Joker Arroyo said that it wasnt enough for the prosecution to prove the charges as if
they were ordinary crimes. They must meet a higher bar and show that violence
raises the level of an impeachable offense. The prosecution asks SC clerk of court to
provide the SALNs of Corona but they hesitated to comply and asked for a chance to
ask the SCs permission first. The Constitution provides that the SALNs shall be
disclosed to the public in the manner provided by law. However, the SC has
adopted a rule frustrating that clause, saying that their own SALNs can be disclosed
only with their prior permission. Since then, such permission has never been
granted. Process by process, the parties had submitted the witnesses and
documents as evidences. The prosecution focused so much on Coronas SALN, that
he didnt declared all his bank accounts, that those must have been open to the
public. On the process of voting on the impeachment trial, 20 senators voted for
guilty and only three voted for not guilty. Most of the senators had a stand that
Corona must pay the consequences for betraying the public trust and that he has
lost his moral fitness while Sen. Santiago, Sen. Marcos and Sen. Arroyo stood up for
their beliefs that it is unjust to convict Corona. They strongly believe that SALN is
not a ground for impeachment. But at the end of the day, Corona was still
impeached by the Senate.