Santiago expects Corona to come out firing and senators’ grandstanding

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago

MANILA, Philippines – Suddenly, Chief Justice Renato Corona will find himself at the other end of the courtroom.

And when he takes the stand, the highest magistrate of the land will be at the mercy of prosecutors and senators, and come under the microscope on national TV. He might crack under intense, prolonged questioning, but make no mistake, he’ll come out “firing.”

And expect the senators, especially those seeking re-election, to show off and “preen before the cameras’’ as the impeachment trial reaches its climax.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Saturday offered these scenarios in the upcoming testimony of Corona, who has decided to face allegations about $10 million in undeclared foreign currency deposits on the final stretch of his impeachment trial.

“He will be exposed to merciless cross-examination. During cross-examination, the lawyer is allowed to ask leading questions, and in effect, put words in the mouth of the witness, and it remains for the witness to deny,” she said in a phone interview. “He will have the opportunity to deny, but the lawyer will have the psychological advantage.”

More importantly, prosecutors will “pepper him” with questions that would “imply he has bad character,” she said. “They will try to get on his wrong side.”

The 23 senators, for their part, are “dying” to propound questions on issues left unanswered so far in the trial, said Santiago, who would herself concentrate on the chief justice’s purported peso and dollar accounts.

“This is the state witness,” she said of Corona. “No senator will want to be said that he was silent in this period, this climactic period.”

The defense planned to present the 63-year-old Corona as its last witness. The court subpoenaed Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, who has asked Corona to explain his alleged accumulation of $10 million in foreign currency bank deposits, and complainants Akbayan Representative Walden Bello, Rissa Hontiveros, Harvey Key and Emmanuel Tiu Santos to shed light on the alleged dollar accounts.

And with all cameras trained on him in the televised trial, Corona will be scrutinized by the entire country, his every word, his every move closely watched to see whether he’s telling the truth or not, according to Santiago.

“From trial, I’ve learned to study the behavior of witnesses on the stand. If one is telling the truth, this will emerge from what he’s doing or not doing. Whether his eyes are shifty or if he’s looking straight, or if he shifts in his chair,” said the former trial court judge.

Corona could succumb to physical and mental stress following lengthy questioning by the senators and prosecutors, Santiago said.

“He might lose control and surrender himself to stressful moments when he’s taking the heat from the enemy. There were some witnesses who broke down, admitted guilt, wept or looked so pale that they asked for a glass of water,” she said.

Santiago said she was worried about the physical condition of Corona, who, she said, has had a heart bypass and been advised to avoid stress.

Mental stress is another matter, the senator said. “If he feels harassed, he might snap back with an answer that should not be allowed in court. I myself get very angry. He might get very angry. He might resort to irrelevant argumentation,” she said.

“He runs the risk of a chief justice placing himself at the hands of an ordinary trial lawyer,” she added.

Santiago agreed that Corona was taking a big gamble by facing the charges against him in court, but said he won’t be a pushover.

“If he himself takes the witness stand he has to be pretty sure he’s telling the truth,” she said, pointing out that some respondents refuse to appear in court for fear they might give themselves away.

“I think he was exasperated. He thought his silence was the best to meet the accusations. This man has reached the tipping point. His enemies have pushed the envelope too far. He’ll come out firing,” she added.

During his testimony, Corona might be able to “sway” public sentiment, and show by the tenor of his voice if he was “suffering from persecution,” she said.

But will he survive the grilling?

“That depends on his character. I think there’s equipoise between the two sides. They’re equally balanced,” she said of the prosecution and defense panels. “Then it will be difficult to break the deadlock. With his testimony, he will weigh the balance in his favor so heavily that the prosecution can no longer recover.”

Since the foreign and local press will devote full coverage of his testimony, Santiago predicted “an orgy of preening for the TV.”

“The defense and prosecution will show off their trial skills. And the senators will want to impress their national constituencies that they deserve to be reelected in 2013,” she said.

“This is going to be an action-filled traffic stopper. Everyone will stop traffic and go back home. Even the barrio people will go to the poblacion (town proper) to watch it on TV. This will be a moneymaker for TV, and I dread the many commercials. It will be like an international boxing championship,” she said.