RENATO CORONA AT THE MILLION PEOPLE MARCH: WRONG MOVE!

What was he thinking?

Former Chief Justice Renato Corona showed up with his family in tow at the “Million People March” held at the Luneta Park yesterday, August 26, 2013. The Corona family first stayed at the lobby of a nearby hotel, then proceeded to the Luneta grounds shortly after.

I am quite glad to know that he too, is rooting for the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or the “pork barrel” in layman’s terms, which is now being perceived by many Filipinos as the root cause of massive corruption in the legislature.

But was it ethical for him to have showed up at the event?

Last year, Mr. Corona lost his post as the Chief Justice of our country after the Senate, which acted as an impeachment court, found him guilty of the three articles of impeachment filed by the prosecution panel. One of those, was Corona’s inaccurate declaration of his assets in his SALN or Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.

The bone of contention was the non-inclusion of Corona's other bank accounts and real estate properties that the government unearthed, which led to the questioning of his riches.

What now is the relevance of the former Chief Justice's case to the controversial PDAF?

What is the correlation, you might ask, between Corona’s impeachment case and our current issue which is the alleged misuse of the pork barrel funds, when only legislators are awarded with such funds? 

Most certainly, Corona did not receive any pork barrel.

However, even though a public official is not a recipient of the PDAF or any other government funding, this does not necessarily mean that his or her honesty and integrity cannot be doubted anymore, most especially if Sir or Ma’am possesses inexplicable wealth.

Corruption has many faces (as if you don't know).

And so Corona and his family were verbally mocked by some people at the Luneta.

My thinking tells me that his short-lived participation in the event was his way of getting back at the Aquino administration – currently receiving a lot of flak in relation to the 10 billion pork barrel scam, which ruthlessly persecuted him and his family during the impeachment trial.

But unfortunately, it was not the right venue.

Wrong move.


Postscript: 

It must be recalled that PNOY and Corona did not have any good relationship when the latter was still the Chief Justice. Why? Corona was a "midnight" appointee of the previous administration. In fact,  during the presidential inauguration , it was Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales who administered PNOY's oath of office as per the request of PNOY himself, instead of Renato Corona who was then the Chief Justice.

As per tradition, it is the Chief Justice who swears a President into office.