Before the impeachment court adjourned late on Wednesday, the prosecution elicited additional evidence from Marianito Dimaandal, the head of the Malacañang Records Office, in the form of SALNs submitted by Corona covering the period 1992-2002.
In that 10-year span, Corona served in various capacities in the executive branch.
He joined the government in 1992, during the term of President Fidel Ramos. He first served as assistant executive secretary for legal affairs and concurrent head of the Malacañang Legal Office, a sub-Cabinet post, before being promoted to the post of deputy executive secretary and, later, chief presidential legal counsel.
But it was the decision of then Vice President Arroyo to pick him as her chief of staff and spokesperson in 1998 that laid the groundwork for his entry to the Supreme Court four years later, on April 9, 2002.
Corona reached the peak of his legal career on May 12, 2010, when he became chief justice. But the circumstances of his appointment were questionable because under Section 15, Article 7 of the Constitution, a sitting president is barred from appointing vacancies in the judiciary during an election period.
His assumption of the post of Chief Justice and head of the judiciary now forms part of the grounds of Article 1, which states: “Respondent betrayed the public trust through his track record marked by partiality and subservience in cases involving the Arroyo administration from the time of his appointment as Supreme Court justice which continued to his dubious appointment as a midnight Chief Justice and up to the present.”
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