Former Chief Justice Renato Corona. INQUIRER file photo
LOS ANGELES, California—President Benigno Aquino III lashed out at former Chief Justice Renato Corona anew, saying that he would not have been surprised if the former magistrate personally booked the ticket that would have allowed former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to flee the country last year and piloted the plane himself.
The President made the remarks before the Filipino-American community of Los Angeles on the last leg of a week-long trip that took him to the United Kingdom and the United States.
In his speech—delivered in Filipino—Aquino also recounted how he told one incredulous journalist during a recent interview that he
had no dollar bank accounts.
“‘Is it true that you do not have a dollar account?’ I told him, ‘None, sir.’ He asked, ‘Why don’t you have a dollar account?’ I answered, ‘I don’t take trips abroad, that’s why. Whatever else would I use the account for?’” the President said.
He added: “And it seemed he found it hard to understand that this was possible. It is indeed possible not to hold a dollar account, unlike some others.”
In his testimony at the Senate impeachment trial, Corona revealed that he had dollar bank accounts but did not declare them because he believed the law governing dollar deposits prevented him from doing so.
The President devoted a significant part of his speech to explaining his anti-corruption platform, including a lengthy explanation of why his administration decided to move against Corona.
He told the audience that Corona was a “midnight appointee” of his predecessor, appointed to his post despite what he said was a clear constitutional ban on such appointments two months before elections.
“To tell the truth, he was appointed at past midnight. Mr. Corona was given the post one week after the elections,” he said.
Despite this, he said, his administration strove to work with the Corona-led Supreme Court, going as far as meeting with the chief justice to tell him that all that the Aquino administration wanted was a level playing field when it came to legal matters.
“He replied, ‘Rest assured that all our decisions will abide by the law.’ But what happened? The rumors became fact,” Mr. Aquino said, recalling that the Supreme Court successively struck down executive orders that would have created the Truth Commission and removed midnight appointees from office.
The President said that he accepted the court’s decisions, but had to put his foot down after the Supreme Court moved to allow Arroyo to leave the country last year, despite her failure to meet certain conditions set by the court itself.
“The chief justice openly showed that when the subject of Mrs. Arroyo was on the table, he let his own law prevail,” he said. “Using a TRO, Mr. Corona almost succeeded in having Mrs. Arroyo fly out of the country.”
The President told the crowd that he chose to take a stand because he was elected on a platform that promised change, and that he fully intended to fulfill this promise to the Filipino people.