The Senate opens today the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona. Although I would like very much to see the end of this political process, I have been hearing reports that Corona will resign.
This is not a far-fetched scenario especially because the CJ’s entire family has been dragged into reports that he amassed ill-gotten wealth. The 45 real estate properties around Metro Manila are said to be valued at more than P200 million.
The severity of media scrutiny at this stage, plus the pressures of the impeachment trial will add up to the stress that he has been going through ever since President Noynoy Aquino unleashed an aggressive and zealous campaign against corruption. All these lend credence to rumours that he will step down.
Still, reports indicate that he is digging in.
The Chief Justice has assembled a “powerhouse of seasoned litigators” who will demonstrate their legal skills before the impeachment court. Law professors and bar reviewers with a combined experience of 300 years compose the defense team. I heard someone say, asa ka mangahoy ana? The Cebuano expression means the prosecution won’t be able to top that kind of legal assembly. Corona’s lawyers will go over all the articles of impeachment with a fine-toothed comb, ready to spring up defects in the House Resolution signed by 188 Congress last Dec. 12. Apparently, they will attack the process on the basis of technicalities.
As the media tried to evaluate the strength of Corona’s battery of lawyers, Iloilo Congressman and chief prosecutor Niel Tupas seemed unmoved and even continued to hammer on the significance of Corona’s impeachment. For the lawmaker “this is but a part of our quest to have former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pay for all her crimes to the people as we join in this tactical effort to unseat an undeserving Chief Justice who we believe was precisely appointed to protect her.” In other words, it is not only Corona’s head on the chopping block but also Arroyo’s.
That President Aquino is the driving force against Corona is no longer a secret. P-Noy is staking his presidency on the impeachment even if he does not control the Senate. The public is right behind him on this issue because they know it is the moral thing to do.
Favorable public opinion can be a double-edged sword for the prosecution. There is no question that many in the House panel are sharp lawyers, but there is a danger for them to become smug or even careless knowing that a popular President is on their side.
Tupas and his colleagues in the panel should be guided by what the late United States President Abraham Lincoln said many years ago. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” As their counterpart in the defense correctly said, there is no substitute for preparation.
Former justice undersecretary Ramon Esguerra, a member of the defense team bewailed the fact that apart from the CJ’s low popularity rating, his camp lacks a so-called media darling who would be able to send Corona’s message across.
If part of their strategy is to look for someone popular with the media to do PR for the Chief Justice, I think they should look at a popular news anchor in a giant network. On many occasions, I heard former Vice President Noli de Castro commenting at the end of the early evening newscast that Corona’s impeachment is bad for the Philippine economy. He only stopped airing his views against impeaching Corona when the station’s TV poll, wherein viewers send their opinions via text, showed overwhelming support for ousting the Chief Justice. There were even days when 90 percent of viewers polled backed moves to unseat Corona.
Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV has surprised many legal luminaries for his astoundingly good analysis of the impeachment process, a piece he aired at a forum held at the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance in Quezon City two weeks ago.
Trillanes leaned on numerous references including former Philippine magistrates before arriving at the conclusion that the impeachment process is a political process.
“Having established that impeachment is a political process, therefore, my verdict should not be based solely on evidence as it now becomes a matter of public policy. And the over-arching policy issue in this whole impeachment episode is, whether the conviction or acquittal of Chief Justice Renato Corona would be good for our country,” Sen. Trillanes said in part.
For lack of space, let me just say that Trillanes has shown that in order to sit ably as senator judge in an impeachment court, one has to study hard and understand the subtleties of the impeachment process.