Speak up!

AMADO P. MACASAET

‘The first step he must take is to file a leave of absence when his impeachment trial begins.’

THOSE who talk in whispers against Chief Justice Renato Corona should volunteer as witnesses in the impeachment trial. And those who are for him must speak up in his defense.

It is important for the people to know what they believe to be abuses committed by Mr. Corona who has been impeached by almost the entire membership of the House of Representatives.

These suspicions must be tempered with counter evidence or testimonies even as suspicions or expectations of a guilty verdict fill the air.

The necessity of having more witnesses for or against Mr. Corona may result in the Chief Justice’s revelation, forced through cross-examination, how extensive the anomalies were in the time of Gloria Arroyo.

That is as far as the Chief Justice knows since it is widely acknowledged that he may have lent himself to numerous fraudulent transactions traced to the former president.

It is in this sense that it could well be said that Mr. Corona brought his fate upon himself. He now finds himself in the meaning of one of the sonnets of William Shakespeare where he said "When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries and look upon myself and curse my fate."

If Mr. Corona feels he must unburden himself of what he believes as obeisance to Gloria Arroyo, he must tell the impeachment court the "crimes" the former president ordered him to commit.

Atonement is not treachery. The treachery Corona committed against democracy and the Constitution is accepting an appointment his peers, on orders of Gloria Arroyo, made possible by misinterpreting the Constitution.

As Mathew Arnold wrote in Sohrab and Rustum, "truth sits upon the lips of dying men, and falsehood while I live is far from mine." Falsehood is not far from Mr. Corona.

Now that he is "dying" he must tell the truth, not for the satisfaction of people who hate him for lending himself to falsehood but to make peace with himself.

The first step he must take is to file a leave of absence when his impeachment trial begins. This is not required by law as doing so borders on admission of guilt. However, a sense of decency and fairness of which he has been persistently accused of not having, should help restore his dignity and self-respect. A leave of absence is called because his own position is in question.

There have been suggestions, in fact demands, that he should inhibit from all the cases involving the alleged crimes of Gloria Arroyo considering that his voting record unquestionably shows his bias for the former president.

He cannot show his bias one more time considering that it is the very reason that left President Aquino with no choice but to frontally confront him and declare him and his court as under the yoke of the former president.

The possibility of being found guilty by the Senate should likewise force him to file a leave of absence as ex-officio chairman of the Judicial and Bar Council. The Chief Justice as the dominant force in the JBC cannot be accused of submitting to the President a short-list of his successors.

He has lost that right of dominance since he has been impeached.

He will be accused of recommending a successor just as loyal as he is to Gloria Arroyo.

This is to prevent President Aquino from returning the list to the JBC because he cannot find a name to his liking.

It should occur to the Chief Justice that impeachment is a political trial. Because it is so, evidence of his innocence will be largely ignored although it will be weighed against proof of his guilt.

The democratic part of the process is the fact that the senators sitting as judges will vote and pronounce a verdict. In the case of the Chief Justice, the senators will cross party lines.

The impeachment is supposed to be a case of the Liberal Party of which President Aquino is the titular head. The number of Liberal Party senators in the Senate will not be enough to secure a conviction.

The clear possibility of crossing party lines in the voting stems from two factors.

First, nearly the whole House of Representatives voted for the impeachment of the Chief Justice.

The Senate may not disappoint those who voted for the ouster of Chief Justice Corona by allowing him to walk.

Probably more important than that is the politics there is in the voting. People will long remember the names of those who will vote for his acquittal. lf they happen to be seeking another term in the Senate, they should not hope that the voters will support them.

The Chief Justice is putting a brave face and urges his Court to be vigilant. The statement is uncalled for. The people are more vigilant for his conviction than his peers.

To begin with his peers will not pronounce his guilt or innocence.