Corona should listen to people, prosecution says

MANILA, Philippines – Chief Justice Renato Corona should listen to what the public is saying, the prosecution said on Tuesday, reacting to a recent Pulse Asia survey where 47 percent of the respondents said they believed that the chief magistrate was guilty.

Marikina Representative Romero Quimbo said that the results should “make an impression on [Corona]” since how he was perceived by the public was integral in the position he holds in government.

He said that they hoped that Corona would think of the possible implications of the survey since it showed that the “vast majority [of the public] believe he is guilty. Hinuhusgahan na siya [He is being judged].”

The defense panel will “certainly look at this with alarm,” Quimbo said.

He added that they were glad that the public has voiced out its opinion on Corona since it showed that although the prosecutors were not practicing lawyers, “we were able to present our case.”

But if the defense panel thinks that a turnaround was possible for the 47 percent who perceive the chief justice as guilty, Quimbo said that he personally thought it was “illusory, isang guni-guni. Matagal nang alam ng taong bayan [at] kung naniniwala [sila] na mababago ang pagtingin , ito ay isang ilusyon para sa akin.”

He said even the 33 percent who thought Corona was “probably guilty” still showed that they thought the chief justice was “guilty enough for them to make a decision and to say it openly. Mabigat sa tao na maghusga.”

Of the 43 percent who did not perceive the chief magistrate as guilty, Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III said that they “would try to swing them in our favor.”

The public, showed through the survey, that they believed in the evidence presented by the prosecution team “bagamat maraming batikos, this shows that the evidence is substantial to sway the minds of the people that chief justice is guilty,” Tañada said.

Although Quimbo said that the impeachment trial was “not about surveys” but about the evidence presented, he said that they were glad the public’s sentiment was shown through the survey. “We see in a snapshot kung ano ang sentimyento nila. [Nakikitang] may mabigat na pagkiling laban kay chief justice.

Meanwhile, asked about the 22 percent of the respondents who said that the Senate may not be fair in deciding the case, Quimbo said that the percentage was still “mababa, acceptable.”

He said that what they deemed to be more important was that “more than 50 percent would accept the decision” and its implication was that the impeachment tribunal “enjoys high trust as far as the public is concerned.”

But asked whether the survey could help the prosecution in getting the 16 votes needed from the senator-judges, in order to convict Corona, Quimbo said “mas makakatulong sa amin [ang survey] pero as to whether it will bring out the 16 [votes], mahirap sabihin.”

He said that the survey was useful in informing the Senate of the public’s opinion and giving Corona an idea of “where he stands as far as the public is concerned.”