The Corona Impeachment Trial: Absurdity

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Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, a member of the prosecution panel who has previously released his SALN, challenged Corona and other Supreme Court justices to do so as well.

Colmenares said the high court’s statement that the justices were not releasing their SALN because they could be kidnapped was “absurd.”

“Kidnappers don’t go around looking at the SALN of their victims before they kidnap them. This kind of reasoning means all public officials can refuse to submit their SALN on the flimsy ground that, like justices of the Supreme Court, they can also be kidnapped,” he said.

Colmenares said the nonrelease of SALNs was a violation of Section 17, Art. XI of the Constitution and of Republic Act No. 6713, which state that public officers or employees shall, upon assumption of office and as often thereafter, submit a declaration under oath of their SALN.

He said the high court’s insistence that justices, unlike all other public officials, were exempted from the constitutional and statutory provision was “absurdly self-serving.”

Colmenares’ latest SALN showed a net worth of P700,000.

“I live in a 59-sq-m, one-bedroom home in a low-cost housing unit in Sauyo (Novaliches, Quezon City) and drive a second-hand 2003 Revo. We have a dilapidated 13-year-old, secondhand 1998 Nissan Sentra,” the lawmaker said.

“In case spin doctors plan to concoct stories against prosecutors like me, they can visit my house in Sauyo any time,” he said.

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This post is not intended to violate copyright infringement law, this post originated from http://www.inquirer.net