Lest we repeat this sordid saga in our history, it behooves us as a nation to learn valuable lessons from the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Here are five lessons I’ve learned:
1. Some people just get better with age! Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was sharper than ever as he deftly conducted the proceedings with majestic decorum and order. The defense team’s head, former Justice Serafin Cuevas, easily ran rings around the amateurish prosecution panel. Their performances were defining moments.
2. We will miss Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago when she leaves for the International Court of Justice. We may disagree with the manner she disses people, or abhor her weird accent, or scoff at her penchant for always calling attention to her claimed superior intelligence and incomparable knowledge of the Constitution and the law. But the Senate and TV audience will certainly miss the comic relief from her routine outbursts and colorful perorations.
3. No award-winning script can save a bad actor. The role called for someone who has been wronged by a vengeful president, a victim of a vicious conspiracy, a simple man whose only desire was to serve the people and champion the cause of the poor farmers of Hacienda Luisita. Instead, he came across as self-indulgent, petulant, inarticulate, small-minded and rude. His tears were shown to be nothing but crocodile tears. The unforgiving TV cameras showed his shifty eyes to be like those of a used car salesman who should never be trusted.
4. President Aquino means business. The way he never wavered in his desire to remove “the face of a corrupted judiciary” should send chills down the spines of the other members of the Arroyo cabal in the Supreme Court, including Corona’s loyal spokesperson Midas Marquez. The message is clear: Your days of impunity are over. The time of reckoning is near.
5. The fight against corruption continues. We, as responsible citizens, must remain vigilant. We get the leaders we settle for. Let’s continue to support them when they do right and call them out when they go astray. And when they refuse to mend their ways, kick them out.
—ED DAMES,
Makati City