Erap on impeachment trial

How does former President Joseph Estrada, who was himself impeached and ousted from the presidency, not by the Senate impeachment court but by People Power II, feel about the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona?

“Corona is more fortunate than me,” he said. “Corona is being given due process—too much, I think—but I was ousted by mob rule. Worse, the Supreme Court, which is supposed to give justice to every man, denied me justice by ruling that I had resigned. I never resigned, either in writing or verbally, but the Supreme Court said it was a ‘constructive resignation,’ a term that it invented and used for the first time in my case.”

Erap has reason to feel aggrieved. He was replaced by his vice president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, not for any of the reasons enumerated by the Constitution—death, permanent disability, resignation, impeachment—but due to “constructive resignation.” The honorable justices could not find any justifiable reason to oust him so they invented one.

It was not the impeachment trial that did it. The Senate trial was cut short when the prosecutors walked out after a majority of the senators voted against opening an envelope whose contents supposedly incriminate Erap. (When the envelope was opened later, after Erap had already been ousted, it contained nothing incriminating.)

The walkout led to People Power II, and a mob rushed to Malacañang. Erap was forced to leave the Palace.

The presiding officer of the impeachment court, Chief Justice Hilario Davide, should have dismissed the case against Erap for failure to prosecute, but he did no such thing. He allowed mob rule to achieve what the impeachment court could not. He was rewarded by GMA later with an appointment as ambassador to the United Nations, even though that position is reserved for career diplomats.

The high court has committed many abuses, Erap said, and with the impeachment trial of Corona, it is, for the first time, under attack “frontally.”

“I salute P-Noy for having the courage to do what he did,” Erap said. “It is long overdue.”

It shows that P-Noy means business, he added. “He must have thought about it at least 10 times before he did it.”

Erap thinks that the least Corona should get is a “censure” from the Senate impeachment court.

He also thinks that what is happening to Corona and his patron, GMA, is “karma.” “They committed many mistakes, now they are paying for them. They have wronged many people, now the shoe is on the other foot. Now they feel how their victims felt.”

“Binisita ka naman ni GMA when you were confined in Sta. Rosa, Laguna,” Erap was told.

“Photo op lang ’yon,” the former President interjected. “She didn’t tell me anything. After the picture taking, she left. Long before she arrived, the Malacañang photographers were set up, with cameras, lights and all. When she arrived, she said practically nothing. ‘How are you?’ The cameras rolled and flashbulbs popped, then she left.”

“She also visited you at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, ’di ba?”

“Photo-op din ’yon,” Erap replied. “She arrived, pictures were taken, then she left. Out of courtesy, I accompanied her to the driveway. When the patients looking out of the second floor windows saw us, they began chanting: ‘Erap, Erap, Erap pa rin!’ The next day, I was prohibited from showing myself in the courtyard.”

Erap has made a documentary about his victories and travails. He titled it “My Memoirs.” It chronicles his ascent from the movies, to mayor of San Juan, to senator, to vice president, and finally to president, with the highest majority ever in the history of the Philippines, and then his fall from power.

He blames the elite of Philippine society—the Church, businessmen, civil society—who could not stomach a movie actor being president. They also envied his popularity with the masses, so they connived to oust him from Malacañang.

While People Power I, which ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was hailed all over the world, People Power II was criticized by the international press and legal experts.

“The 1987 Constitution suffered,” said Supreme Court Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma, chair of the 1987 Constitutional Convention. “This happened when the ongoing impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada was unceremoniously discontinued and the issues on hand were brought to the parliament of the streets. The rule of law was set aside and the rule of force prevailed.”

Seth Mydans of the New York Times News Service wrote: “People Power II was met with doubt and criticism, described by foreign commentators as a ‘defeat for due process,’ as ‘mob rule,’ as ‘a de facto coup.’ It was seen as an elitist backlash against a President who had overwhelmingly been elected by the poor. This time it appears that ‘people power’ was used not to restore democracy but, momentarily, to supplant it.”

Said an editorial in The Washington Post: “This time, however, the target of Filipinos’ ‘people power’ was not a dictator, like Ferdinand Marcos, but Joseph Estrada, a constitutional executive who received more votes than any previous presidential candidate and who remained popular among the country’s poor… Though the Supreme Court ruled that Vice President Macapagal-Arroyo should be sworn in as president, the legality of the transfer remains questionable.”

Lee Kuan Yew wrote in the Straits Times: “The change of power in the Philippines was no boost for democracy because it was done outside the Constitution.”

Said the Economist: “Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the presidency in constitutional circumstances that do not stand up well to scrutiny.”