Corona files new petition to stop trial

CHIEF JUSTICE RENATO CORONA has filed a supplementary petition before the Supreme Court, seeking to stop the trial on the basis that most of the senator-judges have indicated their biases against him.

He calls the trial an “inquisition” and insisted that he and his family had enough wealth to start with and that they did nothing wrong while acquiring more assets.

Part of this petition reads:

“Throughout my public career, I have never been involved in any anomaly or scandal. Whatever assets my wife and I have acquired are products of 45 years of toil and honest work,”

“My wife and I have been privileged to come from families of comfortable means. We grew up never lacking in anything and even enjoyed some luxuries. We earned our academic degrees in some of the best exclusive schools in the country,”

Corona said that he earned several postgraduate degrees, including a master’s degree in Harvard Law School and that their parents “provided well for our future.”

“Family resources continue to be available to us anytime. I had a very successful career in the private sector where I was a top executive before I joined the government. That is public record,”

“For the past 40 years, my wife and I lived in a house, which was inherited property, and for that reason never had to pay rent or amortization on our residence. This translated to significant savings over forty years,”

Corona said he and his wife lived “simple and frugal lives since we got married more than 40 years ago, to the point of thriftiness.”

“This contributed to how we have been able to accumulate these assets. Other than our house, which we have lived in for almost 40 years, we have never had any other house,”

“I do not spend on vices like smoking, drinking or gambling, and have been completely devoted to my family. My family has always been my priority,”

“It pains me to see my family suffer the reckless abandon of a few who want to paint a different Renato C. Corona. I will not allow a career carefully nurtured and a family lovingly cared for in my lifetime to be tarnished by people in the business of lies and falsehoods,”

Corona said he was determined to “explain everything satisfactorily” when it was the defense’s turn to present its evidence.

“If you look closely at the documents already marked, the explanations are all there. In the meantime, I would like to request the public not to make any hasty conclusions,”

“This ‘exposé’ that the prosecution is trying to herald as another ‘bombshell’ will, in due time, be exposed as another dud like the 45 properties they claimed I owned,” he said.