IMPEACHMENT COURT OF 2012 Senators in “fighting red” robes, led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (center), pose for a souvenir picture after Wednesday’s oath-taking at the Senate as members of the impeachment court that will try Chief Justice Renato Corona. RAFFY LERMA
The senator-judges are prepared to employ various methods to keep their objectivity during Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who will preside over the impeachment court, will shun TV and radio as he studies the eight articles of impeachment during the holidays.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III will use an “on-and-off switch” in his brain to help him screen information that may influence his judgment.
Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Panfilo Lacson will limit themselves to studying the pleadings; Senator Pia Cayetano will study how court judges remain impartial while hearing cases.
Open mind
But Senators Gregorio Honasan and Antonio Trillanes IV—both former military officers who concede that an impeachment trial is a political exercise—will be sensitive to “the pulse of the people” in deliberating on Corona’s fate.
“We will be objective. At least I can speak for myself,” Enrile assured the Philippine Daily Inquirer, adding that this was why “I do not want to listen to any discussion or anything.”
“I want to have an open, clear, serene mind. That has always been my method whenever I handle a case. I do not watch any television. I do not [listen to] the radio. I read. I study the case. I study the rules so that I’m ready to handle the trial,” he said.
Sotto admitted to not having the same level of discipline as Enrile.
“Whatever you see on television does not really matter. What is important is the evidence presented to the impeachment court. So whatever information I will receive outside the court, imagine the brain having an on-and-off switch that screens everything. Turn it on during the trial, and off afterwards. That’s not really hard to do,” Sotto said.
Lacson said that even if Corona were on cozy terms with his nemesis, former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, this should not be a reason to shut out the defense’s presentation of evidence.
“Speaking only for myself as a senator-judge, I will really be very objective and listen to the presentation of evidence, … to the presentation of the defense, and I will base my decision on what I will see,” he said.
Born with biases
Pimentel said objectivity would not be an issue for him “because I was not the one attacked.”
Asked to explain, he said: “I will limit myself to the pleadings and testimony of witnesses. I was not the one attacked [in the articles], so I should not feel anything.”
Cayetano said she did not think that “objectivity comes naturally.”
“We are all born with our biases. I genuinely believe that we must learn the art of impartiality, and I will actually be reading up on how to develop [it] and how judges practice [it],” she said.
Political trial
Cayetano said she was worried that media reports would somehow influence her and her colleagues’ perception of the case.
“How much do you listen to? How much do you watch? How much do you engage [in], or allow yourself to be taken in by emotional statements of either party? We have to be careful. I might be proposing we need to take a course on that,” she said.
But Honasan said an impeachment trial “is more a political than legal, or even constitutional, exercise.”
“This is a political process and I will recalibrate constantly my moral compass, keep my ear to the ground and try to feel the pulse of the people,” he said in a phone interview.
“We will be applying the rules of court and the rules of evidence… As a senator-judge, I will consolidate all information [and] try my best to study,” he added.
Trillanes took the same position in a separate interview, insisting that an impeachment trial “is a political trial.”
“Of course, most lawyers will try to think it is a legal trial because that is their area of expertise. But I’m looking at it differently. I am a senator of the republic. I am a representative of the people, so the pulse and opinion of the public is the center in this trial. And that’s how I will judge—based on public opinion on one hand and appreciating the evidence on the other,” he said.
Trillanes cited the impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton, which, he pointed out, was “decided along party lines.”
“So it’s just as simple as that. We won’t complicate it,” Trillanes said.
He aired the same views in an interview with reporters.
Hypocrisy
Lacson, himself a former military officer, said in another interview that it would be “hypocritical” to maintain that public opinion would not influence his judgment and that of his colleagues, “especially those who are running for reelection in 2013.”
“In my case, … I swore on my parents’ graves that I will be guided by my conscience first and foremost when I appreciate the evidence during the trial. This may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, and I want to make sure I will make the right and just decision when I finally cast my vote to convict or acquit Chief Justice Corona,” he said.
Sotto and Senator Francis Escudero said the judgment on Corona should not depend solely on the public pulse.
“We cannot go by public opinion alone. We also go by the rules of court, the evidence to be presented, the strength of arguments. We need to factor in everything to arrive at an intelligent and justifiable decision,” Sotto said.
Escudero said the political nature of an impeachment trial would just be “one aspect” in determining Corona’s fate. He said judgment would be based on the quality of evidence and existing rules.
“There should be no politics or bias anymore,” he said in Filipino. “We should just dispense justice, which is basically defined as giving every man his due.”
His own man
Trillanes said that in making his decision, he would not be beholden to President Benigno Aquino III, who had granted him amnesty in connection with his participation in a failed uprising against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“It’s irrelevant here. I am my own man,” he said, adding that Mr. Aquino “has not directed anybody [or] given instructions” on how senators should vote on the impeachment case.
“I’ll cross the bridge when I get there,” he said in reference to a possible Malacañang attempt to influence the senator-judges.
“Ultimately, it’s going to be my decision and the way I will go through that decision-making process will be based on certain criteria that I alone will establish.”