MANILA, Philippines—The job would have been easier if it were in a regular court of law.
The lawyers assembled to defend Chief Justice Renato Corona are a powerhouse cast of seasoned litigators, law professors and bar reviewers, with more than three centuries of legal experience put together.
But the team led by retired Supreme Court Justice Serafin Cuevas considers itself as an underdog when the impeachment trial of Corona for alleged betrayal of public trust and culpable violations of the Constitution opens at the Senate on Monday.
“Definitely,” Ramon Esguerra, one of the lawyers who will argue Corona’s case, told the Inquirer in an interview.
“This is an uphill battle in light of the very powerful personalities we are up against. 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 the resources, we give that to the (prosecution) panel and those behind it.”
Tranquil Salvador III, another member of the defense team, rejected the idea that his camp could easily overwhelm prosecutors from the House of Representatives, who were purportedly set back by the general lack of legal experience among them. One government lawyer closely observing the case suggested that 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 ballgame and there is no substitute for preparation.”
Esguerra, “You always assume that your opponent is good.”
Corona’s lawyers were aware that House prosecutors and their media handlers could portray them as highly paid legal experts out to bully a group of inexperienced lawyers from the House.
“In the first place, we are not highly paid. We are not even paid to do this. This is volunteer work,” said Esguerra (no relation to this reporter).
“We will not grandstand there. The younger ones in the team have been advised not to do that. We would remain respectful. We would remain deferential. We would be patient in protecting the interest of the chief justice. There is no other way.”
Corona’s lawyers are preparing on two fronts—the Senate impeachment court and the larger court of public opinion outside of the chamber.
Esguerra admitted that the impeachment trial poses serious challenges, given that the decision on whether Corona should be ousted would depend not solely on evidence and that the chief justice need not be proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
“It’s simple,” he said, referring to the eight articles of impeachment 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 (meaning the evidence and presentations). But there’s also the court of public opinion and that’s the difficulty in this case.”
Part of the defense team’s preparation is how to properly deliver the message, both to the senator-judges and to the public at large who would be observing the proceedings in all media platforms, including social media.
“We will work on properly delivering the message, not only in the impeachment court, but also in the public. They should also understand the proceedings, the evidence, the presentations,” Salvador said.
One challenge in this regard could be the lack of so-called “media darlings” in the mold of say, a Romulo Macalintal or Leila De Lima, among the defense counsel. They’re all accomplished men of the law, highly respected—if not feared—within the legal circles. But in an arena where popularity is a major factor, they still have some serious work to do.
Esguerra said the team is confronted by a combination of Corona’s low trust rating (as per the recent Social Weather Stations survey), President Benigno Aquino’s immense popularity, and a supposed public perception that the chief justice is guilty.
Aquino is seen as the prime mover of Corona’s impeachment, which was prepared and swiftly approved upon the initiative of the President’s Liberal Party, in a matter of hours last December 12.
“Even now, the chief justice has been judged to be guilty by the public,” Esguerra said, heaping blame on the release of documents and pictures of Corona’s alleged properties in the media before the trial could begin.
Salvador lamented that stories about the purported properties were already creating the impression that Corona was corrupt. Corona himself said that he owns only five houses and accumulated 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 afterward,” he said. “They don’t see the actual pleadings. They don’t really understand the procedures and what’s going on. We really have to make them understand.”
From a purely legal perspective, Corona’s counsel could be considered a client’s dream team. Esguerra said he and his fellow defense lawyers 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.
Corona’s team includes the likes of Eduardo De Los Angeles, former dean of the Ateneo Law School, and Jacinto Jimenez, known within the legal circles as a “repository of knowledge,” 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 Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles, one of the top law firms in the country. Along with Cuevas, they are seen as the top strategists on the team.
Of the 30 lawyers who volunteered for Corona, at least three have had experience in an impeachment case. Cuevas defended former President Joseph Estrada in his aborted trial in 2001, while De Los Angeles was with the prosecution team then. Esguerra was tapped to help former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. when he faced an impeachment complaint in 2003.
German Lichauco II and Dennis Manalo of Siguion Reyna Montecillo & Ongsiako, one of the leading firms in the Philippines, are also part of the Corona team. Manalo is described by the firm as one concentrating on “criminal and labor litigation (with) substantial experience in trial work and appellate practice.”
A partner in the firm, Lichauco is described as “an intra corporate dispute litigator whose expertise includes hostile corporate take-over 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 counsel also includes Jose Roy III, another product of Ateneo Law and former dean of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila’s Law School. Also working for the chief justice are Joel Bodegon, Karen Jimeno, Noel Lazaro, and Rico Paolo Quicho.
Assignments have been farmed out, each lawyer having been designated to a particular article of impeachment against Corona. As in every other case they’ve handled, preparation is key.
But after all is said and done, Corona’s camp is not 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, the lawyer said, “the judgment that people give against you is not necessarily the judgment of history or of God.”