Danny Lim to Corona: Inhibit or Resign
RET. BRIGADIER GENERAL DANILO LIM’S OPEN LETTER TO SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE RENATO CORONA
CHIEF JUSTICE RENATO CORONA
Supreme Court of the Philippines
Padre Faura St. Manila
Dear Chief Justice Corona,
As a citizen and voter of this country, I appeal to your sense of honor and integrity to refrain from participating in the deliberation of cases involving Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. You are left with only two options, either you inhibit from the said cases or resign from your position. If you cannot muster the courage to resign then at least have the delikadeza to inhibit yourself from deciding the fate of Mrs. Arroyo.
Given the extraordinary political relationship you have with Mrs. Arroyo, to recuse from the said cases is the most sensible course of action. Lest you forget, When Mrs. Arroyo was still Vice-President, you served as her Chief of Staff and Spokesperson. When Arroyo assumed presidency in 2001, you served as her Presidential Chief of Staff, Presidential Spokesperson and later as Acting Executive Secretary.
These positions can be considered as confidential in nature. It is a testament that you enjoy the full trust and confidence of Mrs. Arroyo from the start. As such, the positions you occupied during the presidency of Mrs. Arroyo are accorded only to people who are fully trusted by the appointing authority.
On this alone, your participation in the deliberation of Mrs. Arroyo’s fate smacks of partisanship. It is no surprise therefore that Mrs. Arroyo hastened to appoint you as Supreme Court Chief Justice nearing the end of her presidency, which the people also deemed as the beginning of her prosecution.
Perhaps this would explain the very consistent pattern that emerges should one scrutinize the decisions you made in favor of the Arroyo administration. The fact that you voted 15 times for Mrs. Arroyo on 19 cases or a batting average of 79 % in favor of Arroyo is profoundly stupefying.
Please do not forget that the integrity of the Supreme Court rest upon the decisions that will be made in the crucial cases that will be resolved in the coming days. The people who have suffered nine years of corruption and impunity under the Arroyo regime are looking for answers. They will not settle for anything less than the truth.
I was once part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, an institution whose integrity was severely tarnished by allegations of its involvement in rigging the elections in favor of Mrs. Arroyo.The offense is not a simple corruption case wherein elements of the military appropriate public funds for private use. It is also a direct affront to the right of the people to a clean and honest election. This issue is central to the duty of uniformed men and women to uphold and protect the constitution. I myself am looking for answers. I myself will not settle for anything less than the truth.
Hence, I write you this letter. After all, if a simple letter can overturn a supposedly final decision of the high tribunal like what we witnessed in the FASAP retrenchment case, then perhaps my letter as a citizen and voter could persuade you to do the right thing.
Again, you are left with only two options, either you inhibit from the Arroyo cases or resign from your post. If you do not have the mettle to resign then at least have the decency to inhibit yourself from the Arroyo cases. By stepping aside in the dispensation of justice, you are doing the Supreme Court, the Filipino people, and even Mrs. Arroyo a great favor.
At the end of the day, If the voting on the Arroyo cases is presided over by a credibility-challenged chief justice, then the search for the truth will be defeated. And in this case, it will not be decided in any substantive or legal standards, but by mere partisan interests.
I hope you will heed the people’s demand.
Sincerely yours,
(RET.) BRIGADIER GENERAL DANILO LIM