An overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives swiftly impeached Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. The major reason, among 7 others were his interference in the prosecution of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Reasons for impeachment
1. Partiality and subservience in cases involving the Arroyo administration;
2. Failure to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities and net
worth (SALN);
3. Issuance of flip-flopping decisions in final and executory cases;
4. Issuance of the “status quo ante” order against the House of
Representatives in the case concerning the impeachment of then
Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez;
5. Decision in favor of gerrymandering in the cases involving the 16 newly-
created cities, and the promotion of Dinagat Island into a province;
6. Granting temporary restraining order in favor of former President Arroyo;
7. Failure and refusal to account for the Judicial Development Fund (JDF)
and special allowance for the judiciary collections; and
Because the impeachment complaint was supported by more than one-third of all House members, it will be transmitted straight to the Senate for trial once the House approves it during the plenary session.
“This is very important, grave and historic,” Speaker Feliciano Belmonte declared after a hastily called caucus of the ruling Liberal Party and its coalition partners and party-list groups. It took no more than three hours for the congressmen to produce the articles of impeachment against Corona.
Belmonte said the 57-page document was signed by more than one-third of the 285 House members, a requirement under the Constitution to impeach the Chief Justice without going through the plenary debates.
The grounds for Corona’s ouster included betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution and graft and corruption, citing specifically in the eight articles of impeachment his “undue closeness” to Arroyo who is under hospital arrest for electoral sabotage.
Belmonte added that the 11-member prosecution team would be formed and would bring the case to the Senate. Senate President Enrile said that the 24-member senate would constitute the impeachment court.