Renato Tereso Antonio Coronado Corona[1] (October 15, 1948 – April 29, 2016) was a Filipino judge who was the 23rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 2010 to 2012.
In November 2011, the Supreme Court, headed by Corona, issued a landmark decision on the Hacienda Luisita case, wherein, under agrarian reform laws, the Court upheld both the distribution of land to the hacienda's farm workers and the revocation of the stock distribution option (SDO) agreement forged in 1989.
Renato Tereso Antonio Coronado Corona was born on October 15, 1948, at the Lopez Clinic in Santa Ana, Manila, Philippines.
He was the son of Juan M. Corona, a lawyer from Tanauan, Batangas, and Eugenia Ongcapin Coronado, a summa cum laude accounting graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, of Santa Cruz, Manila.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, also from Ateneo de Manila, in 1970, where he was the editor-in-chief of The GUIDON, the university student newspaper.
He earned his Doctor of Civil Law degree from the University of Santo Tomas, summa cum laude and was the class valedictorian.
[6] On May 12, 2010, two days after the 2010 general election and a month before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term expired, Corona was appointed the 23rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, succeeding Reynato Puno who had reached the mandatory age of retirement.
"Had the framers intended to extend the prohibition contained in Section 15, Article VII to the appointment of Members of the Supreme Court, they could have explicitly done so.
He assured that "on the basis of the (Constitutional) Commission's records, the election ban had no application to appointments to the Court of Appeals.
"[15] The President had an "imperative duty under the Constitution to fill up the vacancies created by such inexorable retirements within 90 days from their occurrence.
[17] The following year, two referendums on the stock distribution option (SDO) were held, with several farm workers alleging that they were forced to agree to it.
[20] In November, 2011, in a 56-page ruling, all 14 Supreme Court justices, including Corona, voting en banc, unanimously agreed that the contested land should be distributed by the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to the original 6,296 farmer-beneficiaries pursuant to an order of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council in December 2005.
[21] On December 22, 2011, Marites Dañguilan Vitug of the online site Rappler published an article alleging that the University of Santo Tomas (UST) "may have broken its rules" in granting Corona a doctorate in civil law and qualifying him for honors.
UST likewise questioned the objectivity of the article, citing that Vitug has had a run-in with Corona and the Supreme Court.
[22] Vitug supported Associate Justice Antonio Carpio's bid for the chief justiceship in her articles in Rogue and Newsbreak.
[27] As only a vote of one-third of the entire membership of the House, or 95 signatures, were necessary for the impeachment of Corona under the 1987 Constitution, the complaint was sent to the Senate for trial.
It is about Hacienda Luisita: the P10 billion compensation which the President’s family reportedly wants for the land that was simply lent to them by the government; the need to terrorize and instill a chilling effect on the justices of the Supreme Court to be able to bend their decisions in favor of the Malacanang tenant,” Corona said in a speech delivered during the blessing of the Justicia Room of the Ateneo Law School.
[29] Corona pointed out that the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Cojuangco Aquinos' Hacienda Luisita case in August 2010, which was after Corona became Chief Justice, and issued their landmark decision, which was adverse to the Cojuangco Aquino family, in November 2011, a month before the impeachment was filed.
and to their faces denounce the court’s independent actions.”[33] Aquino also attacked Corona at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Makati Business Club.
In his September 25, 2013 privilege speech, Jinggoy Estrada, one of the senators who voted to convict Corona of article two of the articles of impeachment, claimed that all senators that voted to convict Corona, excluding Bongbong Marcos, Joker Arroyo and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, had ₱50 million released to each of them.
[38] On January 20, 2014, then-Senator Bong Revilla claimed that then-President Aquino and multiple allies personally asked him to convict the Chief Justice.
[47] On November 3, 2022, the Sandiganbayan dismissed the last case against Corona and his heirs, as well as his trustees, assignees, transferees, and successors-in-interest, because they were able to “adequately prove that their income could enable them to acquire the questioned assets.”[48][49][50] The Sandiganbayan pointed out that "it remained undisputed that respondents both came from families of very comfortable means and that even before his appointment to the Supreme Court, CJ Corona had financial capabilities to shoulder huge expenses and had lived a very contented life with his family.
Corona died at 67 years old on April 29, 2016, at 1:48 a.m. at The Medical City in Pasig due to complications of a heart attack.