Defense relying on technicalities to get CJ off the hook
In trial practice here and abroad, if justice is on your side, pound on the facts and the law; otherwise, pound on the table! The latter seems to be the tactic being resorted to by the defense panel in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
From the documentary evidence that has been presented thus far, it is becoming increasingly clear that Corona has amassed ill-gotten wealth during his stint in the executive branch and in the Supreme Court. His lawyers claim that his wealth is the “fruit of his own toil,” but given the paltry emoluments he has been receiving as a public servant, there is no way he could have acquired those assets lawfully.
Predictably, his defense lawyers hammer on the technicality that no such allegations were categorically made in the charge sheets, and therefore evidence relating to the same is inadmissible—truly a scoundrel’s defense! No matter how the impeachment court (the Senate) may decide this matter, Corona is a severely damaged product. Even if eventually exonerated on such mere technicalities (and therefore not necessarily because he is innocent), Corona has long lost any moral authority and ascendancy to continue presiding as Chief Justice.
In a Supreme Court that loves to say: a judge must be like Caesar’s wife (i.e., beyond reproach and suspicion), Corona sticks out like a sore thumb! To paraphrase the lead prosecutor: In the name of God, depart already!
—STEVE Y. VESPERA, ESQ,
