Tag Archives: Joseph Estrada

[In the Web] Chief justice impeached for ‘supporting Arroyo’

Posted on by dars0357

Titanic clash looms in the impeachment of CJ Corona. Photo from http://globalbalita.com.

Raissa Robles in Manilla
Dec 13, 2011

Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona was impeached yesterday by the House of Representatives for allegedly issuing decisions favouring former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo‘s government.

Corona will become the first Philippine chief justice to face an impeachment trial before the Senate. It will start next year, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said late yesterday.
Only 95 signatures were needed.Corona’s impeachment came suddenly when 188 lawmakers in the 287-member House signed the Articles of Impeachment that the house leadership drafted this weekend.

Edcel Lagman, the House minority leader and a loyal ally of Arroyo, branded the move “the mother of all blackmails”. He claimed congressmen were told they would miss out on “pork-barrel” funding for pet projects if they did not back the move.

Arroyo is under guard at a military hospital after her arrest on charges of electoral sabotage. She denies the charges.

Other lawmakers denied Lagman’s claim. Congressman Teodoro Casino said that his militant bloc signed up to the impeachment because “this is an important step in holding [Arroyo] accountable for her crimes against the people”.

Last month, the Corona-led Supreme Court ruled that Arroyo could leave the country despite a travel ban issued by the Department of Justice. But immigration authorities blocked Arroyo from boarding a plane on the orders of the justice department.

Corona warned court employees yesterday of “a secret plot to oust me from office, by any means fair or foul” and promised a fight.

Corona is the third highest official to be impeached, after former president Joseph Estrada in 2000 and ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez earlier this year.

Animosity between Corona and President Benigno Aquino came to a head last week after Aquino delivered a stinging conference speech moments after shaking Corona’s hand.

Aquino told Corona he was a “midnight appointee”, because the latter assumed office only a week after Aquino’s sweeping electoral victory last year, then detailed a number of decisions Corona made favouring Arroyo.

Corona served as her presidential chief of staff and spokesman before she appointed him to the Supreme Court.

Please read original article posted at http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=037a9249b2334310VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=asia%20world&s=news

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[In the Web] Aquino vs. Arroyo: This time it’s personal

Posted on by dars0357

Manila Standard Today - In this Tuesday Nov. 8, 2011 photo, former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, wearing a head and neck brace, sits down for an interview with a local reporter at her residence in suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines.

By Edwin Espejo

The pathetic standoff at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) involving former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Philippine immigration officials Tuesday evening only highlighted how far contradiction among the country’s privileged elite can go – a bitter clash that could plunge the country into a constitutional crisis.

And both camps – the Arroyos and President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino – have only themselves to blame.

Legally, there is nothing that would and should bar the besieged former president from leaving the country in the absence of a proper court order.

There is an executive order, ironically issued by the former president herself, however, that places a person under a watch list and whose flight outside the country may be stopped by the immigration officials.  It is an executive edict that is now being questioned before the highest court of the land by the Arroyos.

The Arroyos have sought and were granted a temporary restraining order by the Supreme Court that, in effect, barred the Aquino government from preventing Arroyo to travel abroad.

The Aquino government, however, believes it has a case against the former President and is morally obliged to perform its duty of preventing a potential fugitive from justice from leaving the country.

As it now appears, the Aquino government is taking the risk of being cited in direct contempt by the Supreme Court for what the current president believes is his moral obligation.

The NAIA standoff however is not just mere legal and political issues between two of the country’s powerful political clans, it also has personal undertones to it.

During several attempts to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo when she was still the president, the Aquinos – at least the Cojuangco side of the president’s family – were among the leaders of the movement that sought her resignation.  President Nonoy Aquino’s late mother Corazon, also a former president, went to great lengths to apologize to former President Joseph Estrada for joining the protest movement that led to the ouster of the latter.

Corazon Aquino played a major role in the installation of Arroyo as president of the republic in the aftermath of Estarda’s impeachment.

Ironically, it is Corazon Aquino, and to some extent her son, who also were among the first to drop Arroyo as an ally and called for her resignation due to corruption and widespread electoral fraud in 2004.

It is a falling out that left Arroyo enraged.  Under her watch, the vast Hacienda Luisita property of the Cojuangcos was declared subject to the coverage of the land reform program.

Aquino in turn has not gotten over the fact that the Arroyos pulled all the plugs during the 2010 presidential elections in which the current president won convincingly on an anti-corruption platform.

Both the former and current presidents share the same place in the history of Philippine politics.

 

Read full story at http://asiancorrespondent.com/69673/between-aquino-and-arroyo-it%E2%80%99s-personal-now/

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