inside Philippine politics and beyond
Our Plaza Miranda Exclusive - By Raïssa Robles Senator-Judge Ralph Recto told lawyer Serafin Cuevas last week that his client, Chief Justice Renato Corona, must testify at his own impeachment trial. Recto made this statement after asking retired Justice Cuevas the following questions regarding Cristina Corona’s sale of a 1,700-square meter Marikina property in July 1990 to her husband’s cousin [...]
My Exclusive By Raïssa Robles Cash from a defense lawyer of Chief Justice Renato Corona could enable Demetrio Vicente to transfer to his name a valuable property that remains in the name of the chief magistrate’s wife 22 years after buying it from her. Private lawyer Ramon Esguerra told me in an exclusive interview: Personally, I’m willing to advance money [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles Early this year before the impeachment trial began, intermediaries of Chief Justice Renato Corona reportedly told the presidential palace that Corona would be willing to step down provided two conditions were met. First, he would stay on as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. And second, he would get to name his successor. One [...]
By Raïssa Robles As Defense lawyer Serafin Cuevas mightily tried to have the Senate toss out the impeachment case yesterday against Chief Justice Renato Corona, Senator-judge Joker Arroyo told him in no uncertain terms that the Senate could not do it. Calling him “Justice Cuevas, my friend,” Arroyo gently said it wasn’t possible. Before I go any further, I would [...]
By Raïssa Robles When political tensions rise, the ever resilient Filipino instinctively cracks jokes. The impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona is one more instance in our nation’s history where jokes – expressed as political satire – have become a measurement of public dissatisfaction or outrage. Jokes on Corona have turned viral on the Web One example [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles Four and not just three senator-judges were sworn into office by no less than Chief Justice Renato Corona, the very man they recently swore to convict or acquit in a fair impeachment trial. [UPDATE: Senator-judge Juan Ponce Enrile, presiding officer of the Impeachment Court, also took his oath of office before CJ Corona. That makes [...]
By Raïssa Robles In January 2001, Joker Arroyo took the lead in asking the Senate impeachment court to subpoena Cathy Weir, then president of Citibank N.A., in order to produce records on then President Joseph Estrada’s dollar deposits. Arroyo was then a House senior prosecutor in Estrada’s impeachment trial. A grateful nation subsequently voted Joker Arroyo to the Senate [...]
My Exclusive By Raïssa Robles Almost a year ago, the Supreme Court led by Renato Corona affirmed the conviction and jail sentence of Rosalio Galeos for making “false” and “incomplete” declarations in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for four successive years. Galeos’ case and that of his co-accused, former Naga, Cebu mayor Paulino Ong, are [...]
By Raïssa Robles This Year 2012, or the Year of the Black Water Dragon, one Chinese horoscope predicts that “something unexpected will happen.” That’s putting it mildly if applied to rapidly unfolding political events in the country. Long before the dragon sets foot on the celestial plain this February 4, two events have already occurred that would affect the [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles Chief Justice Renato Corona was required by the SALN law to disclose starting 2003 that his wife sat on the board of a state-owned corporation, former Civil Service Commission chair Karina David told me in an interview. David was chair of the Civil Service Commission when Cristina Corona first joined the board of John [...]
Low taxes “unheard of” in the business, broker says My Exclusive By Raïssa Robles Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona may have been sold a luxury penthouse at a very special discounted price. He also may have enjoyed tax breaks on the same transaction, courtesy of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, sources separately confirmed to me. What’s wrong with [...]
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I shall die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. - 18th Century Children’s Prayer By Raïssa Robles I couldn’t sleep last night thinking of the hundreds of children and their parents who were swept to sea in their [...]
By Raïssa Robles When obscenely rich and powerful Filipinos get into legal trouble, who do they turn to? Estelito Mendoza. When then President Joseph Estrada faced a Senate impeachment trial, who defended him? Estelito Mendoza. When former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently tried to skip the country ahead of an imminent electoral sabotage case, who went on her behalf to [...]
Read her signed counter-affidavit By Raïssa Robles Ramona Revilla is the only other living witness – besides girlfriend Janelle Manahan – to the murder of Ramgen Revilla on October 28, 2011. She submitted a 13-page counter-affidavit to the Philippine consulate in Ankara, Turkey last November 24. It is understandably short on details since the police has tagged her as an [...]
My exclusive By Raïssa Robles When Senator Antonio Trillanes was in detention for a capital crime, he was banned from using the Internet and mobile phone by a regional trial court judge. Trillanes appealed the ban but the government of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo successfully blocked this, as well as his request to physically attend Senate sessions. That was [...]