Corona defense team braces for 'retaliation'

The defense team of Chief Justice Renato Corona said Thursday it is ready in case their client is the object of retaliation for his vote with the majority in the Hacienda Luisita agrarian reform case.

 

"Kung mayroon mang mangyayaring retaliation from Malacanang or from the President himself, siguro naman handa na kami sa pagkakataon na ganito," defense spokesman Paolo Rico Quicho said.

 

By an 8-6 vote, the Supreme Court on Tuesday voted to peg to the 1989 valuation the distribution value of Hacienda Luisita’s 4,915 hectares.

 

The majority of eight were Chief Justice Renato Corona and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco, Arturo Brion, Teresita Leonarda-de Castro, Roberto Abad, Jose Perez, Jose Mendoza and Martin Villarama.

 

"Simula't sapul pa lang dahil sinabi na ni CJ na ang isa sa mga dahilan kung bakit siya iniimpeach at sinisira ng administrasyon na ito ay dahil sa posisyon niya sa Hacienda Luista," Quicho said.

 

The defense counsel, however, declined to go into specifics of what the chief justice may have meant when he mentioned “retaliation.”

 

"Pero kung ano ang eksaktong ibig sabihin niya [Corona], hindi namin kayo mabibigyan ng detalye dito," said another defense spokesperson Tranquil Salvador III.

 

Salvador added that their basis for expecting retaliation is based on the fact that the Aquino siblings have stakes in the sugar plantation of the family of the late former president Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.

 

"Mukha namang mayroong [koneksyon] whether we like it or not, may sinasabi tayong interes na personal ang ating Pangulo dahil isa siya sa nagmamamay-ari base sa ating kaalaman," Atty. Salvador said.

 

"Liliwanagin namin na ito ay hindi personal na desisyon ni CJ. Ito ay desisyon ng isang institusyon, ng Korte Suprema na binubuo ng 15 mahistrado," the defense attorney and spokesman added.

Over at Malacañang, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the Corona camp is having “illusions” about the “retaliation” they are preparing for.  

The Cojuangco family, however, through their lawyer Antonio Ligon said Hacienda Luisita Inc (Inc) will "embrace" the high court's ruling, especially since distributing the farmland would be a "glowing legacy" of President Benigno Aquino III's mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, a member of the Cojuangco clan.

 

As to the court's ruling on just compensation, the HLI said: “We will await the processes in compliance with the determination of just compensation provided for in the law.”

 

DAR Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes has said it would take at least one year before the plantation gets distributed to the farmers, adding that the government still has several steps to make, including valuation, ocular inspection, and the identification of the beneficiaries. — ELR, GMA News