THE CONVICTION of former Chief Justice Renato Corona by the Senate impeachment court in 2012 may not be illegal, but it was tainted with “vested interests,” according to a law professor.
President Aquino now faces criticism over his alleged interference with the impeachment process of the ousted chief magistrate.
Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada said in his privilege speech last year that the executive branch gave out an additional P50 million to the Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) or pork barrel to each senator who voted to convict Corona.
More recently, Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., in a privilege speech, claimed President Aquino asked him and other senators to vote against Corona. In less than 24 hours, Malacañang confirmed that the President indeed met with Revilla and other senators but denied the allegation that Aquino told them to vote for Corona’s conviction. The President merely told them “to vote according to their conscience,” according to Palace communications head Herminio Coloma.
Malacañang, however, refused to comment on the propriety of President Aquino’s personally meeting with the senator-judges.
The motivations of the two opposition senators are also under question, as both are facing plunder cases filed by the Aquino administration over the misuse of pork barrel funds.
Violation of separation of powers?
At any rate, it was not proper for Aquino to have anything to do with the impeachment proceedings, according to constitutional law professor Rene Gorospe.
“As a political leader he may want a particular output in that kind of proceeding but he should not actively participate, like offer incentives for those who would go his way,” he said in an interview, emphasizing that the impeachment process is an act of Congress that should be conducted independently.
The 1987 Constitution gives the House of the Representatives the exclusive power to initiate impeachment proceedings, and the Senate the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.
If the allegations against Aquino are proven to be true, the President could face impeachment himself, said Gorospe.
“If he really did do more than try to influence, then that might be a violation to the principle of separation of powers because he practically tried to dictate what the Senate must be doing on its own,” he said.
Impeachment against PNoy improbable
But Gorospe said an impeachment complaint against Aquino was very unlikely, considering that majority of members of Congress (House and Senate) are his allies.
“You don’t expect [them] to cross the party line to impeach their own leader,” he said. “If Congress were populated by oppositionists that would be a possibility, but right now that’s an impossibility.”
It is possible that senators implicated in the P10-billion pork barrel scandal are only disclosing these details as part of their “defense mechanism.”
“There may have not been any reason to disclose all of this before when everybody seemed to be satisfied with the result. Since they have been implicated in some scandal, they also have to save their skin,” Gorospe said.
Corona earned Aquino’s ire following the former’s acceptance of his “midnight appointment” as chief justice by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo shortly before the 2010 national elections.
The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Corona’s appointment in the case of De Castro vs. Judicial and Bar Council in 2010. Jelina Anne S. Bunagan and Michael Carlo C. Rodolfo
