The impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona shifts today from the clamorous arena of public opinion in the streets to the more sedate Senate, where the rules of court are expected to give a semblance of order, decorum, and respect for evidence that would insulate the tribunal from the lynch-mob passions outside.
When Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, the presiding judge of the tribunal, bangs the gavel to declare the trial open, his mettle to direct a fair trial as a veteran lawyer in many constitutional crises since Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in 1972 comes under severe challenge.
At the same time, Enrile will be challenged to protect the independence of the Senate from pressure and undue intervention from either the executive branch and its cohorts in the streets threatening to exert people power on Corona and the Supreme Court he heads.
From this perspective, it may be considered that the trial is not merely an issue involving determining the guilt or innocence of Corona.
This is the first time Philippine democracy is putting on impeachment trial the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a vindictive action initiated by the President to make him accountable for decisions and actions claimed to be biased for or protective of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Corona, who was appointed Chief Justice by Arroyo on May 12, 2010, is accused of betrayal of public trust, violation of the Constitution, and graft and corruption.
Since the founding of the postwar republic in 1946, we have had two impeachment trials. We had been unsuccessful in completing a trial of the first case—that of President Joseph Estrada.
The aborted proceedings ended in a second people power uprising in 2001 that ousted Estrada.
Conclusive decision
The prospects of having a conclusive decision on the Corona trial are considered promising.
The issues in this trial arise from the damage that might visit the tripartite system of checks and balances as a result of the accumulation by the executive branch of powers in the course of its campaign to remove officials associated with Arroyo and to send her to jail on charges of electoral sabotage for which she is now detained without bail.
The prevailing consensus is that the impeachment trial is essentially a political—rather than judicial—exercise, conducted with the procedures of the court of law under the rules of due process.
What this means is that the battleground has now shifted to the terrain of public opinion, to which the protagonists would be addressing their arguments and evidence.
In the domain of public opinion, Corona and his defense team should have no delusions that the Aquino administration is not enjoying certain advantages, and that it would forego dirty tricks to demonize him and his family and strip him of any shred of dignity and annihilate him completely. The administration’s tactic is to apply the scorched-earth approach.
There are concerns in this overkill approach. The administration appears to be using police state methods in collecting and presenting evidence to win popular approval, partly to influence the senator-judges that if they voted for acquittal, they would be running against the tide of public opinion as manifested in the media and the opinion polls, which are now showing that the President continues to enjoy high popularity ratings.
Blackmail strategy
As of the last weekend, the House prosecution panel continued its barrage of data on the purported real estate acquisitions by Corona of more than 40 pieces of properties to press demands for him to disclose his statement of assets and liabilities in trying to build a case of unexplained wealth.
On Saturday, the prosecution panel, disregarding interchamber courtesy, asked the Senate to issue subpoenas for Corona, his wife, three of their children, and son-in-law, to make them testify on the acquisition of assets by Corona.
This request was quickly followed by the release on the Internet of a partial list of supposed Corona properties.
This has been the kind of carpet-bombing that the prosecution has been carrying out to condemn Corona in the eyes of the public.
This blackmail strategy of extracting information is reminiscent of the method used by the erstwhile East German secret state police Stasi to obtain dossiers on political dissidents from their relatives who were asked to spy on their families.
Once the members of Corona’s family are subpoenaed, they would be grilled to disclose information that could be used against the Chief Justice. They would be coerced to betray the head of the family.
This is not done in democratic society. This country is not a police state.
If the administration can get away with this method without public protest, no one will be safe from it, not even the apathetic.