CJ must go but impeachment not being done the right way

A client-friend has asked that I assist him in the Senate to testify in the trial of Renato Corona, who I have always considered a de facto chief justice and who has done little to earn an upgrade (to de jure). Regrets, I said, given my poor voice and low energy. My litigation days are over and I now focus on settlements.

Corona is over-ambitious—plain as day—and matapobre. “Mga walang salwal, ngipin, atbp.” he memorably described the pro-Erap masa at Edsa in April 2001, which led to deaths on May 1. Corona I want impeached (done) and convicted (remains to be seen), but am not sure the right thing is being done in the right way. His human right to due process we must respect.

No debate and recorded voting in the House, which are mandatory even in changing the name of a callejon. Look at the Clinton impeachment, with intense debates and recorded individual voting. I never knew how our congressman from Pasig, Henry Lanot, would have voted and, mayhap, explained his vote in November 2000, on Erap’s impeachment. His mandate of millions was erased summarily.

The House may have again validated—as in the resolution to bury Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani—what the late Ramon Mitra once said: even a piece of toilet paper being passed around would be signed by many congressmen. The nation was denied a chance to see and hear Manny Pacquiao, for one, vote and explain his decision.

What about Senator Bongbong of the Marcos family whom Corona described in effect as crooks on July 15, 2003, forfeiting billions in favor of the Republic?

Debate and voting I see as the heart of a democratic deliberative assembly. The sad folly of Manuel Villar in November 2000 must not be repeated—the “Impeachment Express” that ended with the Senate vote disrespected, leading the nation from an arguable frying pan into the certain conflagration that saw institutions, processes and values razed during the elitist-militaristic Arroyo-Generals-Corona decade.

We cannot do what Corona is doing, convert us into German lawyers in the time of Hitler, saluting as law anything calling itself by that name and printed at government expense, as in that fantastic TRO allowing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to leave when calling in the doctors would have destroyed her claim of sickness. Does Corona check common sense at the door?

Now her spokesperson wants Arroyo to go to Mass in the hospital chapel, creating security nightmares because the former warned against death threats. A simple Mass in her private room would do given the number of religious the Li’l Gal generously helped while in power.

—RENE SAGUISAG,

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