The Supreme Court is supposed to interpret the Constitution in a way that would protect the public interest.

We take that to mean ALL of us.

But in the case of its issuance of a temporary restraining order on the disclosure of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona’s dollar deposits, it has interpreted the Constitution to protect the interest of one man accused of serious crimes.

The Constitution is very clear: the Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.

Which part of SOLE  the SC doesn’t understand?

But in issuing the TRO, it encroached on this absolute power of the impeachment court to decide on Corona’s case.

Clearly, it has overstepped its mandate to protect one of its own from accountability. 

The core issue, it should be emphasized, is the Corona’s  accountability.

After all, the last time we checked, the CJ was still a public servant, in fact, the fourth highest official in the land in the constitutional order of succession and, therefore, accountable. 

The SC TRO erects a huge obstacle to his accountability for culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and graft and corruption.

The disclosure of the dollar deposits would have confirmed what the impeachment court and the people have discovered since the trial started:  That Corona has accumulated fabulous wealth over and above his legitimate income as an associate justice and now CJ of the SC.

He has admitted to owning four or five real estate properties. One of these, a penthouse at the Bellagio Towers, was acquired for P14.5 million but declared in his SALN at only P6.8 million. Another, a condo unit at The Burgundy in Quezon City, was acquired for P3.5 million but was declared in   his SALN as with only P270,000. 

The PSBank has also revealed that Corona maintains peso deposits worth at least P20 million in several accounts.  

How could he have accumulated multi-million-peso properties and huge bank accounts on the meager salary of a member of Judiciary, in this case no more than P50,000 per month or P600,000 annually?

If we compute his total salaries over a period of 10 years, he would have earned only P6 million. But P12 million in one bank account alone? And P14.5 million for an expensive penthouse?

Certainly Corona has been too enterprising a CJ, apparently making a pile of money even as the SC has not been able to declog its dockets of a huge stack of pending cases.

At the very least, he is guilt of dishonesty for misdeclaration  and undervaluation of his properties and cash in banks.

For these reasons, the Senate impeachment court should not take this encroachment on their mandate and powers by the SC sitting down.

It must assert its independence and constitutional mandate and proceed with Corona’s trial and demand that his dollar deposits be revealed in the interest of justice.