4 Supreme Court justices rally behind Corona

MANILA, Philippines - Four justices of the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday rallied behind embattled Chief Justice Renato Corona in his call for public accountability of government officials by agreeing to sign a waiver on the secrecy of their dollar deposits.

Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama Jr. and Jose Perez have taken the challenge posed by the chief magistrate during his impeachment trial at the Senate last Friday.

When Corona was impeached last December for non-disclosure of his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), Senior Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno made public summaries of their SALNs.

Corona had signed a waiver allowing government agencies to open his dollar accounts with a challenge to 188 impeachment-complainants and Senator-judge Franklin Drilon to sign similar waivers for accountability and transparency.

Drilon and lead prosecutor Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., however, refused to take the challenge.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and several society groups have since urged government officials to sign the waivers. They said the call goes beyond the impeachment trial, but for accountability and transparency.

A group also created a page on Facebook called “Sign CJ Corona’s waiver (For the 188 congressmen and Drilon).”

“This is not a support page to CJ Corona, but a page that saw a chance to identify who really is corrupt and who’s not. It’s not everyday we can ask a chief justice, a senator and 188 congressmen to sign a waiver opening their bank accounts in public...Take the challenge! Sign the waiver! Come out clean!” the group said.