‘Weep like a woman…’?

While this is written, those following Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial are in a cliffhanger. What will it be? A conviction or an acquittal? Events happen so fast that the mind tries to keep pertinent images in mind. What I retain in my mind is the first time that the Chief Justice testified in court last Tuesday. After the fuss, the fighting stance, the anger that spilled over in words that trembled on the edge  of  “libel,” Corona stood up and walked away. He may have wanted to leave behind an image of triumph. Thus: “He leaves. Everyone in court is in open-mouthed surprise!”

The irony of it is, the image he left instead was reminiscent of his friend, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sitting in a wheelchair at the Naia airport.  Like Arroyo, Corona  left the impeachment court, subdued, also in a wheelchair.

I sound unsympathetic, but there it is. The tears that the Chief Justice shed at the trial remind me of an event in history: East of Granada, there is a place called “El Ultimo Suspiro del Moro” (The Last Sigh of the Moor). It was on this mount that Moorish king Boabdil wept as he looked back at his beloved city of Granada that was conquered by King Ferdinand of Spain in 1492. His mother was heard telling him, “Llera como mujer lo que no has sabido defender como hombre.” (Weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man.)

—DETTE PASCUAL,

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