PRESS STATEMENT
May 30, 2012
Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP)
Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM)
SANLAKAS
Corona Conviction is not a Deterrent to Corruption
Malacanang
and its paid hacks in media are now making a mountain out of a
molehill. They say that the conviction of Renato Corona by the
impeachment court is a triumph of democracy and a cleansing of the
bureaucracy. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The
telenovela that was the impeachment of Corona ended with a predictable
and lackluster climax, leaving the masses unentertained and not craving
for more. The single and simplistic moral lesson of the story: “tell the
truth in your SALN”.
Despite
the long proceedings, the Senate could only prove one fact: Corona did
not properly disclose his dollar deposits in his SALN. Hence, its
verdict rested on the sole issue of “non-disclosure”, covered by Article
2, which it raised to a “culpable violation of the Constitution”.
In
so doing, the complaint, reduced to Articles 2, 3 and 7 during the
deliberations, was further narrowed down to “non-disclosure” (Article 2,
paragraph 2.2). It did not determine if such cash assets were
ill-gotten or acquired illegally, leaving unanswered the people’s
questions on “ill-gotten wealth”, “court decisions for sale”,
“misconduct and corrupt practices”, etc., etc. The result was a
“narrowing down” not to focus on more substantial issues; the case was
watered down to insignificance.
The
respondent’s admission of non-disclosure was enough for the prosecution
and the senator-judges to obtain a guilty verdict. They did not use
Corona’s waiver of his dollar deposits to put such bank accounts under
scrutiny. Hence, it is clear as daylight that the real intention of the
impeachment court was not to expose and punish immoral conduct and
corrupt practices in government but to merely remove Corona in the
Supreme Court, to replace an Arroyo crony with an Aquino lackey in the
judiciary.
If
the impeachment court truly wanted to cleanse the bureaucracy, it
should have let the sun shine in the dark and shadowy corridors of
power. Let the people know how Corona acquired his millions of dollars;
how Lucio Tan compelled the Court to flip-flop on the FASAP (Flight
Attendants and Stewardesses Association of the Philippines) case; how
much perks and privileges are given by PAL to members of the Supreme
Court.
But
it did not; the impeachment court stopped in its tracks. It did not go
beyond the question of non-disclosure. To the people, especially the
workers and the poor, we believe that they did so because further
investigation would reveal their modus operandi, the prevalent
malpractice of officials in the bureaucracy who use their power and
influence for economic and personal gain.
