Impeachment dj vu

TABLETS OF STONE

Impeachment dj vu

By Larry Faraon, OP

Will the Senate beauty and the beast shed real tears and hug each other if ever Chief Justice (CJ) Renato Corona fails to be convicted by the Senate? Who shall be the dancing queen this time at the Senate floor if ever Corona gets acquitted? Will Rep. Neil Tupas and the array of prosecutors walk out of the impeachment court and proceed to where most probably Edsa, again? Of course, the left leaning groups and the civil society would be out there at the overrated Edsa shrine grounds praying with lighted candles and red banners hoping for a reincarnation of a People Power or a dash of lightning current to strike CJ Coronas brain and tender his resignation, which would make trial by publicity or moral force the regular wheel of cyclical justice. Will there be present the likes of an Apostolic Nuncio or a Cardinal Archbishop of Manila ousting a sitting CJ and installing an administration puppet to the post?

Well, my apologies, I cannot help but reminisce the 2001 travesty of justice against a sitting president, Joseph Estrada. It was Jan. 16, 2001 that the prosecutors walked out of the impeachment court illegally under the approving noses of the Chief Justice Hilario Davide and Senate President Nene Pimentel, after Sen. Franklin Drilon bear hugged Sen. Loren Legarda as they mixed their tears in deep frustration. It would be Jan. 16, 2012 that the impeachment process commences in the Senate. So you see, one cant help a dj vu.

Impeachment by publicity has begun. The aligned prosecutors are actually preempting the appreciation of evidence when they dangled in public the alleged unexplained wealth of the CJ. Learning a strategic clue from the Erap impeachment, the prosecutors are now hammering on the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and net worth, the undeclared and unexplainable fortune of the Coronas. The prosecutors knew for a fact that the public become angrier than the angry birds when corruption, high end thievery and undue influence to accumulate wealth are brought to the fore of the publics naivete. This worked quite effectively in the case of the ouster of the President Erap, with the help of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), which without let up published photos of the alleged real estate properties, mansions and resorts of President Estrada and his family, which turned out to be untrue.

In short, the prosecutors are not really building up an objective case against Corona, but are really shoring up a publicity sentiment of hatred from the people. It is simply mind conditioning and stage setting for a phase two. The spine tingling reality that haunts the prosecution is that the impeachment case against Corona is weak and the prospect of a Corona retention in the Supreme Court (SC) would be a nightmare for the Aquino administration and his cohorts.

Well, at the end of the day, this impeachment case would be a no-win situation, not only for the Aquino administration, neither to CJ Corona itself or the SC but for the whole justice system in this country. If CJ Corona wins an acquittal, then the hostility between the executive and the judiciary would definitely loiter in the halls of justice and litter all sorts of perceived or real biases, prejudgment and subjectivity. In an unlikely scenario of a conviction of CJ Corona, President Aquino appoints a new chief justice who in everybodys perception would be beholden to the appointing power.

The Lady of Justice isnt blind, just blindfolded. And even a president dictator can remove the blindfold at will.

Definitely, if the post factum effect of the Erap illegal ouster initiated by an impeachment process resulted in the degeneration of every institution in our society under the infamous Gloria Arroyo regime of nine years and subsequent political instability, the aftermath of this impeachment case against Corona, regardless of the outcome would create a judicial instability that could take its toll on the state of economic stability, foreign investments and global relationships.

Then, it would the country back to square one dj vu!