Wait and seethe

On the issue of the impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona’s SALN, Supreme Court administrator Midas Marquez, who on the side also seems to be the personal spokesman of Corona, reportedly said that it was best for Corona to reveal his SALN at the “right place and time.” Meaning, to see the SALN, the public must wait.

The SALN is shortcut for “statement of assets, liabilities and net worth,” which all government officials must declare, as required by RA 6713, known as the Code of Ethics for public officials.

For members of the judiciary, including the Chief Justice, the SALN law took a special meaning when, some years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the SALN must be kept away from the public for the sake of “independence of the judiciary.” In other words, the SALN of Corona is a secret.

That, precisely, is the issue. The accusations against Corona in the articles of impeachment concerned money—something like he seemed to have too much of it, considering his ownership of a number of pricey real estate.

Reports accused Corona of owning pricey properties that appeared to be beyond his means as a public official. There was the penthouse condo unit at the posh Global City, for instance, which should cost at least P30 million based on the going rate for condos in the area. Corona already got hit left and right regarding the property.

But according to the Supreme Court spokesman, it seems Corona would rather wait. Marquez said Corona’s SALN could be released during either his impeachment trial or when the Supreme Court en banc resolves petitions requesting the SALNs. Down here in my barangay, the guys can hardly bear the suspense.

Already, groups have filed cases before the Supreme Court to force all the justices to make their SALNs available to the public. They include the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, which heavily criticized the earlier Supreme Court ruling to keep the SALNs of those in the judiciary away from public scrutiny.

The trial of Corona before the Senate is a political process. Whether the Corona camp likes it or not, the public is closely involved in the trial. As former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban puts it, it is more for the people and not really for the lawyers.

How do you think the senators will vote in this trial—by using their legal prowess, particularly those action stars in the Senate? Really now, the public expects the senators to consider the public pulse in this exercise, especially the senators up for reelection. The public became the final judge for instance in the impeachment of the man named Band…Wrist Band. A former senator that became known as the “Dancing Queen” simply did not make it for reelection.

The Corona camp applied some legal niceties on the issue of his SALN, meaning, the issue on his pricey properties, including the much-talked-about penthouse in Global City. They said, for instance, the release of the information to the public by the House of Representative prosecution panel was against the rules of the impeachment. In short, it was illegal.

All these legal niceties are for lawyers. Down here, we simply seethe to see the SALN of the Chief Justice to get a straightforward explanation for his pricey penthouse.

The House prosecution panel just kept on hammering the issue on the SALN. Just the other day, members of the panel insinuated that, because of the insistence of the Corona camp to keep the SALN of the Chief Justice a secret, it was possible that the document was being “doctored.”

Marquez was quoted as saying: “Hindi madudoktor ang SALN dahil lahat iyan ay naka-file na sa office of the clerk of court.”

Question: Who is the boss of the clerk of court? Not the guys down here in my barangay, for sure!

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As everybody knows, except perhaps our busy senators, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) continues to hold public hearings on the FIT, the “feed in tariff,” which is the list of rates that consumers have to pay for “renewable energy”—the electricity generated from solar and wind power, among others. The big issue there now concerns wind power.

Earlier, the business community went up in arms against the FIT, as proposed by the National Renewal Energy Board, or the NREB, because the FIT would force consumers to pay for solar power at P18 per kilowatt hour, which more than three times the rates for electricity from hydropower plants.

From what I gathered, the battle in ERC has turned to wind power. It seems that, based on the rules on FIT, as proposed by the Department of Energy and the NREB, existing wind power projects stand to get a huge “windfall.”

The proposed rules make the FIT retroactive, for instance, allowing the existing wind power facilities to take advantage of the high rates, meaning, rates subsidized by the consumers heavily.

The only existing wind power facility in the country now belongs to a conglomerate, which bought it from the pioneering group headed by a former energy official.

The terms of the purchase were not made public.