MANILA—Tit for tat.

Chief Justice Renato Corona on Friday issued a stinging statement in response to President Benigno Aquino III’s recent broadsides, saying the latter should not meddle in the Senate impeachment trial and scolding him for supposedly telling college students to make a judgment without knowing the facts of the case.

Corona challenged Mr. Aquino to disclose not only his financial but also his psychological records: “Maybe it would be better if you also make public, Mr. President, your SALN (statement of assets, liabilities and net worth) and explain it to the people. Maybe you should also include your bank accounts and psychological records, which have been an old issue. We have an obligation to show the people that we are of sound mind.”

He said he had come out with his own SALN: “I’m not hiding it. Its nondisclosure is in accordance with the policy crafted by the Supreme Court two decades ago, when I was not yet a magistrate. I will explain my SALN when the time or opportunity comes, in accordance with the impeachment proceedings.”

‘Shut up’

The Chief Justice issued the statement in Filipino as a means to reply to Mr. Aquino’s speech at La Consolacion College in Manila on Thursday, wherein he said Corona was no longer to be trusted for failing to fully disclose his bank deposits.

Said Corona: “I am calling on our President not to interfere in, preempt and influence the Senate impeachment court. There is a process in the impeachment proceedings and these are stated in our Constitution and the rules of the Senate. Aren’t you the one who chose this method and brought it to the Senate?

“Let us not move away from the process of the impeachment court and make judgment via the media. Let us allow the case to proceed in accordance with the law and due process.

“Like what you said, it’s better if you ‘observe and shut up first.’” the Chief Justice said.

To the President’s remark that the lengthy legal discussions in the trial appeared to be aimed at confusing the public and causing it to lose interest in the proceedings, Corona retorted, “We don’t have anybody to blame there but your prosecutors who came out with a fake list of my properties and a falsified bankdocument. Who is really deceiving the people?”

He said that instead of taking on “the duty of the Senate impeachment court,” the President should “find solutions to the worsening poverty and the hunger of many of our countrymen, the relentless increase of the prices of gasoline and prime commodities, the continuous demolition of the homes of the poor and the slow response to victims of calamities brought about by nature.”

‘Give me a chance’

The Chief Justice likewise chided the President for supposedly trying to persuade La Consolacion students to make a judgment against him without knowing “the whole truth [and] when only one side has been heard.”

“Is this the ‘judgment’ and ‘fair play’ that you’re teaching to the young? Give me a chance to give my side, present evidence, answer your baseless accusations, and present the truth. This is real justice and is in accordance with our Constitution,” he said.

Corona also said: “I only have 20 defense lawyers serving for free against the 188 congressmen and more or less 60 private prosecutors, all earning from the country’s coffers. Is this right? Add to this the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Land Transportation Office commissioners, Land Registration Authority administrator, Registers of Deeds, Bureau of Immigration commissioner and other officials of the government and civil servants who were instructed to find fault in me and my entire family.

“You are employing the full force of the government so that I and my entire family are persecuted and oppressed. Is this a fair fight? And the straight path?”

Graft buster

 Aquino on Thursday urged the public to rally behind his campaign to oust the nation's top judge, warning the fight against widespread corruption hinged on the result.

Invoking the famous "people power" revolution that installed his late mother to the presidency in 1986, Aquino said ordinary Filipinos had the power to ensure Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona was removed from office.

Corona is on trial in the Senate, accused of violating the constitution to protect graft-tainted former president Gloria Arroyo from prosecution, and also for allegedly amassing a personal fortune above the limits of his salary.

"We should not allow ourselves to become victims of injustice. We must take a stand now," Aquino told a town-hall-style meeting with students at a Catholic college in Manila.

He did not say specifically how the masses could take a stand.

But he recalled how supporters of his late mother, Corazon Aquino, forced then dictator Ferdinand Marcos into exile by protesting peacefully, waging a "civil disobedience campaign" and boycotting firms linked to the strongman.

Aquino said he trusted the impeachment process, but he wanted the public to understand that Corona and his backers were using a wide range of tactics in an effort to derail the case.

Aquino said that if the Senate acquitted Corona, it would virtually destroy his efforts to rid the country of corruption.

"Extremely difficult, if not impossible," he replied to a question from a law student about such a prospect.

Aquino won a landslide election victory in 2010 on a platform to end corruption which has plagued the Philippines for decades and he says worsened dramatically during the decade that Arroyo led the country before him.

Arroyo was arrested in November on charges of rigging the 2007 senatorial vote and is now awaiting trial in a military hospital where she is being treated for what she says is a rare spinal illness.

Aquino then marshalled his allies in the lower house of parliament to impeach Corona, labelling him a "rogue magistrate" loyal to Arroyo.

Under Philippine law, the Senate holds a trial to validate the lower house's impeachment charge.

Aquino insisted Thursday that Corona had lied about asset declarations required of public officials, which he said should be grounds for him being sacked by the Senate.

"According to just three (bank) accounts presented at the impeachment, Mr Corona had hidden 31.5 million pesos (about $730,000)," he said. AFP/inquirer.net