Defense: Powerhouse dream team underdog

The job would be easier if it were done in a regular court of law.

The lawyers assembled to defend Chief Justice Renato Corona at his impeachment trial that starts Monday are a powerhouse of seasoned litigators, law professors and bar reviewers, with more than three centuries of legal experience added together. But the team led by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas considers itself “definitely” an underdog.

From a purely legal perspective, Corona’s lawyers may be considered a client’s dream team.

“This is an uphill battle in light of the very powerful personalities we are up against,” Ramon Esguerra, one of the lawyers who will argue for Corona, told the Inquirer in a phone interview.

“So we don’t look at the case only on the basis of what is going to be tried before the Senate. We look beyond, and we know that as far as resources [are concerned], we give that to the [prosecution] panel and those behind it,” said Esguerra (no relation to this reporter).

Tranquil Salvador III, another member of the defense team, rejected the idea that his camp could easily overwhelm the prosecutors from the House of Representatives, who are said to be hobbled by the general lack of legal experience. (One government lawyer closely observing the case suggested that the prosecutors led by Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. would be “eaten alive.”)

“No, it’s unfair to say that,” Salvador said in a separate phone interview. “I don’t underestimate anybody. This is an entirely different ball game and there is no substitute for preparation.”

Added Esguerra: “You always assume that your opponent is good.”

‘Volunteer work’

Corona’s lawyers are aware that the House prosecutors and their media handlers may portray them as highly paid legal experts out to bully their inexperienced opponents.

“In the first place, we are not highly paid. We are not even paid to do this. This is volunteer work,” Esguerra said.

“We will not grandstand [at the Senate impeachment court],” he said. “The younger ones in the team have [also] been advised not to do that. We will remain respectful. We will remain deferential. We will be patient in protecting the interest of the Chief Justice. There is no other way.”

Prep on 2 fronts

The defense team is making preparations on two fronts—the Senate impeachment court and the larger court of public opinion.

Esguerra admitted that the impeachment trial posed serious challenges in that the decision on whether Corona should be convicted would not depend solely on evidence and on his being proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

“It’s simple,” he said, pointing out that the eight articles of impeachment would be taken as a whole if they were to be argued in a regular court. “But it’s more difficult to deal with public perception.”

Salvador added in Filipino: “In [a regular] court, we would not be encountering a lot of difficulties because the judge will understand everything. But there’s also the court of public opinion, and that’s the difficulty in this case.”

Part of the team’s preparations is how to “properly deliver the message” both to the senator-judges and to the public at large, who will be observing the proceedings in various media platforms, including social media.

“[The public] should also understand the proceedings, the evidence, the presentations,” Salvador said.

Lack of ‘media darling’

One challenge in this regard could be the lack of a so-called “media darling” in the mold of say, Romulo Macalintal, or Leila de Lima, in the defense team. The members are all accomplished and respected men of the law, but in an arena where popularity is a major factor, they have some serious work to do.

Esguerra said the defense team was confronted by a combination of Corona’s low trust rating (per the recent Social Weather Stations survey), President Aquino’s immense popularity, and a supposed public perception that the Chief Justice was guilty of the charges (betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution).

The President is seen as the prime mover of Corona’s impeachment, which was prepared and swiftly approved on the initiative of the ruling Liberal Party in a matter of hours on Dec. 12.

“Even now, the Chief Justice has been judged to be guilty by the public,” Esguerra said, heaping blame on the release in the media of documents and pictures concerning Corona’s alleged properties before the trial could begin.

Salvador lamented that reports on the purported properties had created the impression that Corona was corrupt. (Corona himself has claimed that he owned only five houses—not 45, as alleged by Tupas—and acquired most of them in the course of his legal practice. He said the family residence in Xavierville Subdivision was inherited from his parents.)

“Many people just read the headlines and already make a judgment,” Salvador said. “They don’t see the actual pleadings. They don’t really understand the procedures and what’s going on. We have to make them understand.”

Who’s who

Esguerra said he and his colleagues were driven by the resolve to “respect, obey and defend the Constitution.”

“You include the historical significance of the trial, your participation in a big case like this from a professional standpoint. But that, to me, is parochial. I have to look at the bigger picture—the rule of law is very, very critical here,” he said.

The team includes the likes of Eduardo de los Angeles, former dean of Ateneo Law School, and Jacinto Jimenez, known in legal circles as “a repository of knowledge” and “a genius gifted with a photographic memory” who “knows every Supreme Court decision like the back of his hand.”

Like Salvador, De los Angeles and Jimenez are partners at top law firm Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles. Along with Cuevas, they are seen as the team’s top strategists.

Of the 30 lawyers who volunteered to defend Corona, at least three have impeachment experience: Cuevas defended former President Joseph Estrada during his aborted trial in 2001, De los Angeles was with the prosecution team then, and Esguerra was tapped to help then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. when he faced an impeachment complaint in 2003.

German Lichauco II and Dennis Manalo of Siguion Reyna Montecillo & Ongsiako, the leading law firm in the country, are also part of the defense team.

Manalo is described by the firm as concentrating on “criminal and labor litigation [with] substantial experience in trial work and appellate practice.”

A partner of the firm, Lichauco is described as “an intracorporate dispute litigator whose expertise includes hostile corporate takeover and control.” He also “handles a wide array of cases that include heinous crimes, medical malpractice, construction and commercial arbitration, personal injuries and business tort or contractual controversies.”

Corona’s lawyers also include Jose Roy III, another product of Ateneo Law School and former dean of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila’s Law School, and Joel Bodegon, Karen Jimeno, Noel Lazaro, and Rico Paolo Quicho.

Victory expected

Assignments have been farmed out, with each lawyer designated to a particular article of impeachment.

And after all is said and done, Corona’s camp is necessarily expecting victory.

“You don’t have control of everything,” Esguerra said. “You really have to settle down and be calm about it. If you have done everything humanly possible, where else do you go? You lift it all up to God.”

Besides, he said, “the judgment that people give against you is not necessarily the judgment of history or of God.”