The Aug. 23 news “Trump suffers double whammy” made us wonder: If this happened in the Philippines, would cases involving similarly influential people be done with in just two years?
US President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen made a deal to plead guilty to token charges of tax evasion, fraud, etc., and avoided a five-year imprisonment in exchange for his testimony, which could be used to impeach Trump. Cohen testified that, just before the 2016 election, Trump had “directed him to commit a crime by arranging payments… to silence two women who said they had affairs with Trump” (“Cohen pleads guilty, implicates Trump,” News, 8/23/18).
Trump’s 2016 election campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was also found guilty of tax-related crimes and several counts of bank fraud following his obstinate refusal to “cooperate” with prosecutors to rat on Trump. Manafort preferred to go to trial, confident that he would secure acquittal or at least “a complete hung jury on all counts” (“Ex-Trump campaign chair Manafort found guilty of 8 charges,” same page).
Indeed, similar and worse charges are being filed and tried in this country, but we are thinking 20 years—and that’s still being optimistic about it!
JANNO M. MONTECRISTO, jama.monte@yahoo.com.ph