Renato Corona: "You can’t help but be Atenean! ”

You can’t help but be Atenean,” Chief Justice Renato Corona says, as the self-professed UAAP fan reflects on the impact his Ateneo education has had on his life.

“I’m actually a Jesuit at heart,” he kids, yet the lightness of the moment fails to mask the truth behind those words. The new Chief Justice is as Atenean as Atenean could get. From The Guidon 

( By Luther B. Aquino on June 20, 2010 in Inquiry)

As if his words weren’t enough to evoke as much fabilioh as his stately office would ever allow, statuettes of St. Ignatius, the Blessed Virgin, and a rather imposing eagle were there to keep him company as well.
He never misses an Ateneo UAAP basketball game, he says, for both the seniors and juniors. He’s a member of the search committee for the next Ateneo president, and he talks about his Ateneo days with incredible gusto. He also still holds on to that old Atenean habit of carrying a rosary in the pocket.
“That’s what we were taught. It will always be that way,” he says. (From The Guidon)

He was batchmates with martyred revolutionaries Edgar Jopson (then their Sanggu President) and Emman Lacaba (poet turned rebel who co-wrote “Down from the Hill”). Corona got to work with Lacaba in The GUIDON, alongside current Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, also a batchmate. 
It was during Corona’s days in the Ateneo that the clamor for Filipinization was greatest and the movement for Social Justice was at its peak. Ateneans then regularly rallied against Marcos and the bishops, to protest against fascism and clerical hypocrisy.
From The Guidon

“Just because a person’s your boss doesn’t mean you’re close,” he says, when asked about his relationship with Arroyo. “If I were close to her, then I shouldn’t have left Malacañang.”
Corona was previously appointed as Presidential Chief of Staff and Presidential Spokesman.
Corona says he told Arroyo that he didn’t want these jobs. According to him, “[those jobs in the Palace] get political, whether you like it or not.”
Corona also got upset with suggestions that he was too pro-Gloria.
“That’s absolutely false! They say that because, according to them, there were 18 cases where I voted in favor of the government,” he explains, “but that is half of the story!” From The Guidon

“I’ve written over 900 ponencia,” he says, clearly ticked off. “They chose 18 where I voted in favor of the government; there are more cases where I voted against the government!”

 Asked about Noynoy Aquino, Corona says he has high hopes for him. “We should pray for him, for his success,” he says.

“I’m addressing myself to two sets of people,” he says.

“To critics, watch me, but do not judge me yet. It is too early to judge. Watch what I will do, and maybe you will change your minds.”

“And to those who’ve kept faith, you won’t be disappointed.” From The Guidon

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