graft campaign gets a boost MANILA — Senators fired the Philippines' Supreme Court chief justice Tuesday for failing to declare $2.4 million in bank accounts in a politically colored trial that has reinvigorated President Benigno Aquino III's campaign to clean up the government. More than two-thirds of the 23 senators voted to oust Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, who becomes the first official in the country to be removed by an impeachment court. The decision bars him permanently from public office. The ruling is likely to be welcomed by investors amid concern that the long trial was distracting the government from policy matters at a time when the Philippines is seeing a resurgence of interest in its long-underperforming economy. “The effect is clear, it will be a boost to the anti-corruption campaign of the president, it will also be a big boost to his support base,” said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms in Manila. At least 16 votes were needed to convict Corona on charges of failing to disclose his assets, liabilities and net worth. The prosecution accused Corona of hiding a portion of his Philippine peso and US dollar bank accounts valued at over $4 million. Corona testified last week that it wasn't only him who is on trial and challenged all 188 lawmakers who impeached him to disclose their dollar accounts — but there were few takers. The nationally televised five-month-long proceedings gripped the nation like a soap opera with emotional testimonies, political grandstanding and a sideshow family drama. Prosecutors, most of whom are Aquino's allies from the lower House of Representatives, argued that Corona concealed his wealth and offered “lame excuses” to avoid public accountability. Corona said that he had accumulated his wealth from foreign exchange when he was still a student. Rep. Rodolfo Farinas, one of the prosecutors, ridiculed the 63-year-old justice, saying he “wants us to believe that when he was in grade four in 1959 he was such a visionary that he already started buying dollars.” “It is clear that these were excuses and lies made before the Senate and the entire world,” Farinas said in Monday's closing arguments. Addressing not only the senators but a public hungry for transparency in a country where corruption is endemic, the rich and powerful rarely prosecuted and a third of the population of 94 million lives on $1 a day, prosecutors sought to discredit Corona's defense with references to a lifestyle beyond the means of most of the people. — Agencies The prosecution asked if Corona was so rich, why did he need a loan for a car, and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile quizzed that if Corona had nothing to hide, why the failure to declare all his assets, as mandated by the constitution. Corona's lawyer Serafin Cuevas cited a threat of kidnapping and extortion. Aquino won the 2010 elections on a promise to rid the Philippines of corruption. His immediate target was former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her inner circle that includes Corona, who was appointed by Arroyo shortly before she stepped down. “This is not about vendetta,” said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, a close adviser of Aquino. “This is about strengthening the institutions of democracy, the institutions of check and balance.” He said that the conviction “shows that this country can dispense justice. This encourages people to avail of a judicial process that works even if the accused is a big fish.” Abad hoped it would also “spark a bigger investor confidence in the Philippines because commerce thrives in an atmosphere of good governance, stability and predictability.” The head of the largest left-wing group Bayan, Renato Reyes, said that the impeachment offered a measure of accountability but “is not a cure-all for corruption nor a quick solution to the problem of judicial reforms.” Cuevas said that Corona may consider fighting the conviction at the Supreme Court, an uncharted territory that may push the Philippines toward a constitutional crisis. Enrile said that the impeachment verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
