Palace denies Binay is real target of Corona impeach trial

Published February 20, 2012 4:46pm

Malacañang on Monday denied that Vice President Jejomar Binay was the real target of the impeachment trial against Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“There’s no other hidden agenda here other than the President’s desire to reform the judiciary,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing.

Lacierda disputed the column of former Press Secretary Rigoberto Tiglao published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Aquino wanted Corona out of the Supreme Court in order for it to control the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, which is headed by the Chief Justice

In his column, Tiglao said that without Corona and the other justices either frightened to be impeached or demonized in media, the administration could allegedly fast track the electoral protest filed by Liberal Party vice presidential bet and now Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II against Binay in 2010 and declare Roxas the winner. Aquino is the ruling party's national chairman.

For its part, Binay's camp refused to comment on the matter.

"We would rather not comment on it. Thanks," Joey Salgado, Binay's spokesperson, said in a text message to GMA News Online. Text blast

In dismissing Tiglao's claim, Lacierda said he first saw such insinuations in a text blast.

“It started off with a text blast. The first time I saw it was a text blast.I think Secretary Tiglao should not dignify any such statement,” he said

Lacierda said the impeachment trial “is really primarily the fight, the crusade of the President in reforming the judiciary.”

Aside from serving as Mrs. Arroyo's Press secretary, Tiglao also served as the former chief executive's spokesperson. He also served as Arroyo’s presidential chief of staff in 2002 and head of the Presidential Management Staff in 2004.

In October 2005, he was appointed by Mrs. Arroyo as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Hellenic Republic and to the Republic of Cyprus. Impeachment of Corona Mrs. Arroyo had appointed Corona to his current position just a few weeks before stepping down from office in 2010, to the displeasure of Aquino who has been at odds with the magistrate ever since. The House of Representatives impeached Corona on Dec. 12 last year.

He is now being tried at the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, on the following grounds:

partiality and subservience in cases involving the Arroyo administration;
failure to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN);
issuance of flip-flopping decisions in final and executory cases;
issuance of the “status quo ante” order against the House of Representatives in the case concerning the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez;
decision in favor of gerrymandering in the cases involving 16 newly-created cities, and the promotion of Dinagat Island into a province;
granting temporary restraining order in favor of former President Arroyo; and
failure and refusal to account for the Judicial Development Fund (JDF) and special allowance for the judiciary collections.

— RSJ, GMA News

Tags: coronaimpeachment, jejomarbinay, jojobinay