by Franklin P. Gumapon
DIPOLOG CITY, May 30 (PIA) - - “It will
strengthen the judiciary.”
This was the
statement issued by City Councilor James P. Verduguez after the Senate handed
down yesterday a guilty verdict to Chief Justice Renato Corona for his failure
to honestly declare in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN)
all his properties and assets.
Verduguez, who is a
lawyer by profession, also said the impeachment trial proved “that the
government is serious in making the public officials and workers, no matter how
high and lofty their position maybe, accountable for their deeds.”
Another lawyer
heading the Dipolog Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Atty. Paul
Gudmalin, also found Corona unfit to continue in office.
However, Mayor Caesar
Soriano of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte said of the impeachment trial: “It
envelopes the country’s real conflicts. We are searching for the truth but
unmindful of the real situation that millions of Filipinos cannot eat three
square meals a day. This should be our focus.”
Moreover, in a random
interview conducted by the personnel of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA)
here, it was observed that most of the respondents have approved of the
Senate’s guilty verdict on Corona saying the removal of the chief magistrate
would set a new moral standard not only for officials and employees of the
judiciary but in the whole government bureaucracy from the national offices
down to the local government units.
It can be recalled
that 20 of the 23 senator-judges voted to convict Corona. (FPG/PIA-Zamboanga
del Norte)