So help him God

By: Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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Renato Corona, through his lawyer, Ramon Esguerra, replied to Conchita Carpio Morales’ demand for him to explain his $10 million in the banks thus: “(1) I do not own $10 million. It simply does not exist. (2) It’s part of the black propaganda and mind-conditioning preparatory to the resumption of trial on May 7. (3) (It’s) no different from the phony Land Registration Authority list, phony US property list, phony surveys, phony Inquirer letters to the editor, etc. (4) The Ombudsman has no jurisdiction over the Chief Justice.

First off, I don’t know that the SWS and Pulse Asia are phony survey-takers. It’s not just the media outlets that have been doing surveys, arguably of an unscientific nature, it’s also these two outfits. And they’ve been consistently recording Corona’s fall from grace with the public he is supposed to serve. And they’ve been consistently recording his plunge into one of the most distrusted persons in this land.

“Phony” is not a word Corona or his lawyers should really be belaboring. It’s just like accusing P-Noy of being power-mad, which merely draws attention to his and his boss’, Gloria Arroyo’s, penchant for clinging to their positions like bubble gum underneath a shoe. In this case, accusing everybody else of being phony merely reminds the world of: (1) Arroyo being shoved into Malacañang not by the hand of God but of Garci, and, (2) he himself being slipped into Padre Faura not in the blaze of noon but in the pit of midnight.

But, of course, Morales has jurisdiction over Corona, as even his friends in the Senate have conceded. Morales argues it in her order for Corona to explain his fortune in dollar deposits. “While you may only be removed from office through impeachment proceedings, this office has the power and duty to investigate you for any serious misconduct in the office for the purpose of filing a verified complaint for impeachment, if warranted.”

The Ombudsman has the power to pry into dollar accounts despite the legal proscription against it because of a waiver public officials sign when they file their SALNs. It says: “I hereby authorize the Ombudsman or his duly authorized representative to obtain and secure from all appropriate government agencies… such documents that may show my assets, liabilities, net worth, business interests, and financial connections to include those of my spouse and unmarried children below 18 years of age living with me in my household covering previous years to include the year I first assumed office in government.”

The Supreme Court may forbid the impeachment court from opening Corona’s dollar deposits, but not the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has seen those deposits and has reported $10 million. Corona denies it. That brings us to Corona’s earlier points. He does not own $10 million? It simply does not exist? It’s just propaganda to condition the public’s mind to revile him?

Easiest thing to determine the truth: Let him open his dollar accounts to the impeachment court. Then we’ll know if it’s true or not. Better still, let the impeachment court defy the Supreme Court TRO forbidding it and order those accounts opened. Something it should have done then: Why should the impeachment court bow down to the Supreme Court? It has no higher authority except the people.

The Court’s TRO on opening Corona’s dollar accounts and Corona’s own refusal to this day to bring his assets to the light of day, if not the blaze of noon, can only remind us of Jack Nicholson telling Tom Cruise in “A Few Good Men,” with properly arched eyebrows: “The truth? You can’t handle the truth.”

Oh, yes, we can.

Oh, yes, we should. Whether or not Corona has $10 million in deposits is something we should be deeply bothered about, agitated about, outraged about. If true, then it is ill-gotten wealth, as the law wisely decrees undeclared wealth to be. If true, then it is corruption, as common sense even more wisely decrees a hidden fortune of that size to be.

The truth is that the reason corruption riots in our midst is not that we have more venal public officials than other countries, though one can always make a case of it. It is simply that we do not really see corruption as stealing, we see it as public officials dividing spoils, some greedier than others, but that’s another story, or Senate hearing. More to the point, it is simply that we do not really see corruption as stealing from us, it is their spoils they’re dividing, what they’re doing has nothing to do with us.

Wrong. Very wrong. Corruption is stealing, no more and no less than bag-snatching and picking pockets and robbery holdups. And corruption is stealing from us, no more and no less than an Akyat Bahay member slipping into our room in the pit of midnight, collecting our family heirloom.

Arguably, Corona is not the worst of the lot. Mind-boggling as half a billion pesos is, even more mind-boggling is the fat of the land other public officials have skimmed off, not least among them Corona’s favorite ex-non-president for whom he is willing to sacrifice self and family for. But we’ve got to start somewhere and nowhere better than with the one person we expect basic decency, never mind justice, from. And in any case, that leads, or opens the way, to the real target, who is the ex-non-president Corona is willing to sacrifice self and family for. Corruption is stealing from us. If Corona’s $10 million in deposits does exist, then that is not his money. That is our money. That is the schools that could have been built for our children. That is the clinics that could have been raised for our sick. That is the food that could have fed our hungry.

If he isn’t telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about his $10 million:

So help him God.

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