Vitug’s book on Corona, Supreme Court launched

THE hour before dawn is said to be the darkest hour of the day.

But according to acclaimed veteran journalist Marites Vitug, this hour “also shows a hint of hope.”

In her book “Hour Before Dawn:  The Uncertain Rise and Fall of the Supreme Court” which was launched last Wednesday night at the University of San Carlos (USC) College of Law and Business audio-visual hall, Vitug chronicles the impeachment trial of ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona.

In 20 chapters, the book starts with the midnight appointment of Corona and ends with his impeachment. Vitug also said that its epilogue stopped after the public interviews of the aspirants of the Supreme Court.

“I had a deadline to meet so I could no longer wait for the appointment of the new chief justice,” said Vitug, who is the editor-at-large of online news network Rappler.

As revealed by the author, the book “takes the reader to what might have been the darkest hour of the Philippine Supreme Court, when its integrity was compromised by the actions of the Chief Justice, who was subsequently impeached, and by a series of highly irregular reversals of its own rulings.

Vitug said the impeachment court, with its power to subpoena, proved to be of great help to journalists like her.

She added that the impeachment court unearthed a wealth of information which otherwise, people wouldn’t have access to.

The impeachment  trial she notes proved to be a valuable exercise in the pursuit of transparency.

“I wouldn’t have known about Chief Justice Corona and his wife Mrs. Cristina Corona, receiving platinum cards with Philippine Airlines (PAL) at the same time that the flight attendants case of PAL was pending in the court,” Vitug cited.

“We wouldn’t have known that the Chief Justice was reimbursing expenses from a simple McDonald’s sandwich about P120 to meals in five-star hotels. He also reimbursed a wedding gift for a Filipino-Chinese businessman, this is a personal gift,” Vitug continued.

As for the details, she chuckled that, “You have to buy the book to know.”

The Cebu launching was organized by the USC School of Law and Governance and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)- Cebu City Chapter, in cooperation with the USC Law Alumni Association Inc.