We, the people, in whom “sovereignty resides,” and from whom “government authority emanates,” are getting impatient. Put a stop to the legalistic babbling, hypertensive grandstanding, and the loaded seemingly humane “manifestations” in the impeachment trial, and let us, the real bosses of the senators, see the “whole” truth promptly so that our time and money will not be wasted.
We are addressing this to the impeachment court—the senator-judges, and more pointedly to the presiding officer, to whom majority of the senators defer: Since your court makes its own rules, ergo, you have the power to “expedite the proceedings.”
Because of his actions, one of the people’s official servants is “suspected” (Justice Serafin Cuevas’ “manifestation” notwithstanding) of betraying our trust (all the other charges boil down to it), so we had him impeached. We expected the trial to be short and simple—see all the evidence and hear all the witnesses and then we, the people, through you, our elected representatives, examine and weigh them and then decide. Not that we expect a reasoned and fair decision from a handful of your members. But that is another story.
So please, Your Honors, be “liberal” in the handling of the trial. Correction—more liberal, since you already have relaxed some of your rules to accommodate the easily cowed prosecution’s inexperience and “ineptitude.” Relax the rules some more. For the “whole” truth.
Do not be lulled by the experience and “erudition” of the defense. Do not be sidetracked by its long-winded, blustering and waylaying style of argumentation and cross-examination. (One register of deeds succumbed to it, a commissioner skipped her way merrily through it). Rein the defense in. Rein everybody in, including overbearing senator-judges. Stop the lecturing, the insults, the parading of legalist gobbledygook.
Although most of the senators are intent on letting the “whole” truth out and some of the more perceptive help save it from being hidden, we ask Your Honors, Mr. Presiding Judge and senator-judges, to cut more quickly to the bone of contention: Did Chief Justice Renato Corona betray the trust of his bosses?
Notice that all throughout, we qualified the noun “truth.”
—PEN MEDINA,
162-K B.Gonzales St.,
Varsity Hills Subd.,
Loyola Heights, Quezon City