Belmonte: Convict Corona and free the judiciary from ‘personal greed’

For the first time in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday took to the prosecutor’s podium and appealed to the senator-judges to vote with their conscience and free the judiciary from “personal ambition and personal greed.”   In his closing statement, Belmonte said that Filipinos do not deserve a chief justice “willing to tip the scales of justice with his own hands.”   “Of what use are our efforts to build a better future, if the head of the entire judiciary interprets the laws through the crucible of partisanship, profit, and personal ambition,” the House leader said.   The House Speaker rhetorically asked whether we will look forward to a chief justice who can be an independent person, a person with nothing to hide, and a person whose loyalty ultimately rests on the people, rather than a man who has clearly betrayed the public trust.   “I ask you to see through the character of Renato Corona and reflect whether this is a man that we want as our chief justice, the head of the entire judicial system, for the next six years,” the House Speaker said.   “I ask that you vote according to conscience, and the evidence. Convict Chief Justice Renato Corona,” pleaded Belmonte.   The Senate impeachment court is expected to hand down its decision on Corona’s case on Tuesday.— DVM/HS, GMA News