Defense lawyer?

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago should stop acting like she’s a defense lawyer of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona because she’s getting in the way of the Filipino people’s quest for the truth and for the ends of justice to be served.

On the sixth day of the impeachment trial, Santiago allied herself with the lead defense counsel in trying to block Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares from testifying, with the defense’s Serafin Cuevas desperately admitting any and all of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s documents pertaining to his client to be “genuine” just so Henares could be excused.

As it turned out, Corona’s camp was so afraid of what Henares was to say and offer as evidence because they were so damning to Corona. Henares proved:

1. That while the Coronas claimed no other source of income since 2003 except the Chief Justice’s salary, they were able to buy high-value properties worth millions of pesos.

2. That the Coronas’ income and assets don’t match, thereby proving paragraph 2.3 of the second article of the impeachment complaint, which alleged that the Chief Justice did not include all of their properties, assets and savings in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs).

3. That relative to the pieces of property purchased or sold by the Coronas, they may be liable for tax evasion as, in fact, Henares said that the BIR is now investigating the Coronas’ purchase of an P11-million property in La Vista in 2003.

Santiago should not engage in doublespeak. On the fifth day of the trial, she urged the impeachment court to be liberal in admitting in evidence documents like the Coronas’ SALNs and income tax returns. Yet, the very next day, the senator comes out spewing fire and brimstone on the House prosecutors and for what? Just to stop Henares from testifying, saying, “pauwiin n’yo na ang babaeng ito” or words to that effect.

—CARLO MIGUEL DELA ROSA,

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