Misplaced compassion

THE Supreme Court’s unanimous decision granting the full retirement benefits of the late chief justice Renato Corona, despite his impeachment in 2012, is quite unsettling. It sends the wrong signal to public officials that it is all right to be dishonest for as long as they serve at least 15 years in government.

Corona was ousted in highly divisive impeachment proceedings, puttting the camps of then president Benigno “Noynoy”Aquino 3rd and his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, against each other with the Arroyo side accusing Aquino’s allies of using Corona as a political pawn to exact revenge and, at the same time, control the judiciary.