Still, the people will decide

There's The Rub

Still, the people will decide

By Conrado de Quiros

The defense won’t take up the Basa case in its defense of Renato Corona. It will take up only what has been taken up in the impeachment proceedings.

But of course it won’t. The Basa case is the lightning bolt that the defense has been daring heaven to hurl upon it if it is telling a lie. It’s the most damning thing there is. It strikes at the heart of Corona’s character, or pagkatao, as the Filipino puts it so well. The question is not merely: Is this the person you want to continue to become chief justice? The question is: How in hell did this creature become chief justice in the first place?

The more Corona and the defense try to extricate themselves from it—outside of the impeachment court of course, which they did throughout last week—the more they sink in the bog. That’s what a pile of lies does to you, it adds more weight on your shoulders as you thrash in the bog.

Corona’s first instinct was to deny it outright and say the Basas no longer had any shares in the company and to taint Ana Basa’s revelation by saying Antonio Carpio was behind it. The first only raises more questions than it puts down. Chief of them: How? How did the Basas manage to lose their share in the company that their parents put up? Or conversely, how did Cristina get to own a company she had only a 10-percent interest in?

The second is a lie. Ana doesn’t know the shape or form of Carpio. Corona himself doesn’t bother to offer any shred of evidence for his claim, something his chief defender, Serafin Cuevas, demands at every turn in the impeachment court. “Trust me” is what he’s saying. Which raises the even bigger question: Why?

The defense itself went around questioning the timing of Ana’s revelation. “Why only now?” it kept asking, imagining that to be its strongest suit and Ana’s weakest. In fact the opposite is true. That is Ana’s strongest suit and the defense’s weakest. It doesn’t improve the defense, it demolishes it.

The timing is the beauty of it. The timing is what makes it precious. The Basas had been begging heaven, Cristina—and Corona—for answers about what happened to their company, about what happened to its finances, about where the proceeds from the sale of its assets went. And they had gotten nothing. Only the nocturnal noises of the creatures of the night in Corona’s and Gloria’s favorite hour, the witching hour, the midnight hour. They had been shut off from their own company. They were pariahs in their own company. Cristina would not answer. Corona would not answer. Only heaven answered.

But what an answer it gave. While trying to extricate himself from the bog of his SALNs, Corona testified that he got the millions to buy his houses and condo units from the Basa-Guidote company. That was what had happened to the company, that was what had happened to its finances, that was where the sale of its assets had gone. The company had gone to pot, and the money had gone to Corona.

Why have the Basas come out with their revelations only at this time? Because this is the only time they got an answer to their questions. Because this is the only time heaven supplied them with an answer to their questions. Because this is the only time heaven transformed them into a lightning bolt aimed at the one person telling a lie.

But this won’t be taken up by the defense in the impeachment court. This won’t be taken up by the senator-judges in the impeachment court.

That does not reflect on the Basas, that reflects on the impeachment court. That’s what’s wrong with the impeachment court. That’s what makes the impeachment court irrelevant. That’s what makes the impeachment court superfluous.

For a while now, we’ve been asking whether the real judges of the impeachment court are the senator-judges or the people. But there’s an even more basic and urgent question to ask, and that is whether the real issues are being taken up by the impeachment court or not.

The answer is no.

What is central to this trial? Whether or not Corona is corrupt. But that is something the impeachment court may not take up because the prosecution presumably did not include it in its articles of impeachment.

What is central to this trial? Whether or not Corona has hidden wealth. But that is something the impeachment court may not take up because the Supreme Court forbade the impeachment court from opening Corona’s dollar accounts.

What is central to this trial? Whether or not Corona showed bias toward Gloria in his rulings. But that is something the impeachment court may not take up because the Supreme Court forbade its people from testifying in the impeachment court.

What is central to this trial? Whether Corona is the font of wisdom that a chief justice is supposed to be or a mandurugas as the Basas’ revelations proclaim him to be. Whether Corona has the meekness and humility of an Ana Basa who says he can have the money all to himself if he wants, all she wants is justice, and the expansiveness of a Sister Flory who says she has forgiven him and his wife a long time ago, or the arrogance and bullying ways of someone who would shove a gun at a caretaker’s head as the caretaker alleged. But that too is something the impeachment court may not take up because it is presumably not central to the trial.

What in hell may the impeachment court take up? What in hell is central to this trial? Such things as laying the predicate, saying “this representation concurs with that representation,” and wailing “Waaa!”?

No, the real trial is happening outside the impeachment court. That’s where the real issues are being raised, that’s where the real issues are being discussed, that’s where the real basis for judgment is being laid. The real trial is being held by the public.

The real judgment will be rendered by the people.