The Philippines’ first impeachment trial of a Supreme Court justice opened yesterday, in a major battle of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s anti-corruption campaign targeting his detained predecessor and her allies.
Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached by the House of Representatives last month on corruption allegations, as well as accusations that he tried to block the prosecution of former Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has been detained on vote-rigging charges.
Corona’s trial before the Senate has sparked fears of a constitutional crisis pitting Aquino against the 15-member court, where 12 of the justices were appointed by his rival and predecessor, Arroyo.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile promised that his chamber would hold an impartial trial as the nationally televised proceedings got under way yesterday, attended by Corona, his wife and a dozen defense lawyers.
More than 300 left-wing activists demanding Corona’s conviction rallied outside the Senate, a block away from dozens of Corona supporters.
Representative Niel Tupas Jr, who leads a congressional team of prosecutors against Corona, said the chief justice was impeached because of eight acts of alleged corruption and improperly issuing decisions that favored Arroyo.
“We are not here to indict the Supreme Court as an institution,” Tupas told the senators. “We are here because one man — Chief Justice Renato Corona — has bartered away for the pot of porridge the effectiveness, independence and honor of the Supreme Court.”
A defiant Corona led a rally of hundreds of employees and judges at the Supreme Court before the trial, denying any wrongdoing and vowing to defend the high tribunal’s independence.
“I have not sinned against the president. I have not sinned against the people. I have not stolen from anyone,” Corona said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS