"x x x.
Actually, Corona is hiding behind legal technicalities. It’s an old lawyer’s trick: If the evidence is against you, resort to legal technicalities. And there is always a technicality that can be cited to block the presentation of evidence against you.
There is a saying that secrecy is the cloak that conceals guilt. And Corona is being very secretive. He doesn’t want his bank accounts opened. He doesn’t want to explain where the reported $10 million in his bank accounts came from. He has ordered Supreme Court employees not to release any document requested by the senator-judges or the prosecution panel.
He has filed a new statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) which he says explains his assets, including the mysterious $10-million bank deposits, but he refuses to show this SALN. What is a SALN for if it is going to be kept a secret?
The law mandating the filing of SALNs was passed precisely to ferret out unexplained wealth. It is supposed to be a public record.
Corona is even using the late Chief Justice Marcelo Fernan as a shield to justify keeping the SALNs of the justices of the Supreme Court a secret. He said it was the Supreme Court under Fernan which mandated that the SALNs of Supreme Court justices be kept secret.
This is just an excuse. The Supreme Court can reverse its own ruling anytime if it wants to. A decision that it made today can be reversed tomorrow. If it wants to reverse the ruling of the Fernan Court, it can. If members of the Corona court have filed truthful and accurate SALNs, they should allow the release of their SALNs to their employers, the people. If they acquired their assets legally, what is there to be ashamed of? What is there to be afraid of?
x x x."
