Chief Justice Renato Corona fooled the senator-judges. He set their minds to think of the following: (1) He is scared to testify because he might be harassed by prosecutors and senator-judges alike; (2) He is frail and sickly; (3) He is the subject of an “orchestrated persecution.”
These were all made-up stories to fool the senator-judges and the Filipino people. Why would he be scared to testify when the only senator-judge who harassed witnesses is his ally? He feigned a frail physical condition due to an illness to gain sympathy, and during last Friday’s hearing, the senator-judges were reserved in asking their questions out of sympathy, if not pity.
For playing frail, he got to choose the most favorable time for him to testify and sign the unconditional waiver. He chose Friday, the last day before the oral arguments, to testify and sign his waiver, after the parties had agreed in advance not to present additional evidence due to the dateline fixed by the impeachment court itself.
Whatever he testified to could no longer be rebutted in court. His testimony would appear to be truthful, even if not so, for it stood as if unchallenged. And being the last to testify, he attempted to discredit the prosecutors’ witnesses who, earlier, had testified one by one, with them having no chance to refute whatever he claimed. But Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales did not let it pass unanswered. She came out on TV throwing punches at Corona as a “certified liar.”
My question is: How could the senator-judges allow themselves to be used as tools of unfairness and injustice?
—DENNIS ROAN,
dennis.roan@yahoo.com