Impeachment made easy

FRONTLINE

Impeachment made easy

By Ninez Cacho-Olivares

Noynoy and his congressional allies, as well as perhaps, Justices Antonio Carpio and Lourdes Sereno, may believe that impeaching and trying Chief Justice Renato Corona would only be applied to the incumbent CJ, but what they do not seem to realize is the fact that the charges raised against the CJ apply toall the incumbents and future High Court justices and they all can be ousted, if not by Noynoy and his allies, then the future presidents and their congressional allies.

If, for instance, the CJ is found guilty of partisanship, on account of the charge sheet saying that in many, if not all, the decisions the present CJ had sided with the Arroyo administration despite the ruling being a collegial decision, then all the justices today are equally guilty of alleged bias and betrayal of public trust, for having “favored” the past administration.

In much the same way then, since Carpio and Sereno have obviously dissented in such rulings, thus favoring Noynoy and his administration, they too, are equally guilty of the same charge of bias. Moreover, Carpio or Sereno or any justice that Noynoy appoints can also be impeached on the same grounds Corona has been impeached — once Noynoy is out of the presidential office.

What’s more, if the Supreme Court rules that which the House did by way of the manner in which it impeached Corona, was within its rules, then Noynoy and his appointed justices can just as easily also be impeached by the House and tried--eventually.

Noynoy cannot remain popular forever, and even with his yellow survey firms continue giving him too unbelievably high ratings, they too, would be suffering from credibility problems, of they are not already being believed, since one can’t continue fooling a disenchanted and poverty-stricken people with incredible survey results. In time, Noynoy’s appointed justices can be impeached as well, since their terms would be beyond Noynoy’s term in the presidential office.

It should be fairly easy then to impeach Noynoy’s justices for betrayal of public trust on account of their partiality and subservience to Noynoy and his administration — on the basis of their favorable-to-Noynoy opinions — once Noynoy is out of power — or even perhaps when he is still in power and position, but suffering from a lameduck status. After all, these same congressional allies of Noynoy will dump him and pledge loyalty to the new Palace tenant.

As for the charge of Corona not having disclosed tothe public his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth under the charge of betrayal of public trust, then Carpio, Sereno and all the justices are equally guilty of their non-disclosure of the SALns. They too, should be impeached on the same grounds, even if an old high court resolution already states that the high court justices’ SALns should be filed with the clerk of court.

Even the charge leveled against Corona on account of his wife’s appointment to Camp John Hay’s corporation can hardly hold, as surely, Corona cannot be held accountable for the appointment of his wife by Gloria, even before he became the Chief Justice.

The truth is, the impeachment charges raised against Corona are extremely weak and instead of wasting people’s time and money, it would be best for the Senate to rule on the motion of Corona, and if found meritorious, it should return the complaint to the House as a flawed Articles of Impeachment, along with non-existent crimes of impeachment that certainly will give rise to other impeachment complaints of the same empty sort in the future and under a new administration, as it will have becometoo easy to get impeachable officers impeached with the way things are being done under Noynoy and his administration.

This was the same thing the then opposition and notto forget, the then anti-Erap media did against then sitting President Joseph Estrada. The impeachment complaint was flawed and the way the then House, led by its Speaker, was clearly done against the rules. And so it was elevated for trial while the anti-Erap mob, now the Yellow mob, kept up with its protests. Then, not having the numbers to convict Erap, they went on to stage their planned coup d’etat to oust him.

In much the same way, the Yellow mob is getting ready to create more noise and more protests against Corona. Worse, the Yellow media are again at it, coming up with stories tending to show Corona as not having earned his PhD, as stated by a reporter known to have close links with a high court justice eyeing the top judicial post.

They never learn.