Lest we repeat this sordid saga in our history, it behooves us as a nation to learn valuable lessons from the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona. Here are five lessons I’ve learned: 1. Some people just get better with age! Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was sharper than ever as he deftly conducted the [...]
We are members of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (ICM). We find most unfortunate what happened in the impeachment proceedings last Feb. 29 between the “gentle lady from Iloilo” (a senator-judge) and a private prosecutor. We are educators who teach our students, not only “the rule of law,” [...]
“Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today,” African sages counsel. What will a post-Renato Corona Supreme Court look like? The transition is inevitable. Will it come sooner, not later? How?
We, the people, in whom “sovereignty resides,” and from whom “government authority emanates,” are getting impatient. Put a stop to the legalistic babbling, hypertensive grandstanding, and the loaded seemingly humane “manifestations” in the impeachment trial, and let us, the real bosses of the senators, see the “whole” truth promptly so that our time and money will not be wasted.
The senator-judges’ fashion statement is loud and clear. They wear scarlet velvet robes meant to inspire respect and awe among those who watch them do their job as judges in the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona. They have to have that kagalanggalang (respectable, dignified, distinguished) look that would set them apart from [...]
When our senators perform the task of judges in an impeachment case, they are not meeting as a legislative body; their function is not to make laws but to perform their constitutional mandate as “the sole power to try and decide all cases of impeachment.” Such function could be compared to the work of the members of Congress when they convene as a National Board of Canvassers (NBC)—to count the votes cast for the candidates for president and vice president.
Front-page photos and TV footage focused on maroon togas and initial skirmishes when the first-ever impeachment of a Supreme Court chief justice began Monday. History’s “deep-running currents” below the surface, however, have shifted. They don’t eddy about embattled Renato Corona, 64, who predicts that he will be vindicated. Instead, they swirl about 88-year-old Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who presides over the trial. His rulings and guidance could spur—or derail—judiciary reforms in decades ahead.
