LIES
MANILA, FEBRUARY 24, 2012
(MALAYA) Nestor Mata ("'The Corona impeachment trial
has been marked by attempts to hoist Chief Justice Corona by his own petard with
fake documents of his alleged "hidden wealth."')
NOTHING in the annals of deceit and lies can beat the attempts by President
Noynoy Aquino's panel of prosecutors in the Senate impeachment trial to hoist
Chief Justice Renato Corona by his own petard with fake bank documents of his
so-called "hidden wealth."
What made it doubly despicable was their illegally obtained "evidence"
clearly violated the legal doctrine of "fruit of the poisonous tree" and
therefore must be excluded as unacceptable by the trial court.
And, throughout the past 23 days of the Senate proceedings, when the
congressmen-prosecutors stumbled, bumbled and blundered, some senator-judges,
identified as Noynoy's allies, shed off their maroon-colored togas and took over
the reins of the prosecution panel.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, as presiding judge of the Senate
impeachment court, controlling his temper, didn't censure them on the spot, but,
in a speech before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines last Friday, he sternly
declared: "Lawmakers must not be lawbreakers!" And just two days ago, Enrile,
rebuked the congressmen-prosecutors for being utterly unprepared in the trial.
"The impeachment court trying Corona should uphold at all times the Rule of
Law and not break it," Enrile reminded both members of the court and the
prosecution panel, and intoned, "It cannot transgress any of the applicable
provisions of the Bill of Rights…it must be guided by the presumption of
innocence before the pronouncement of guilt."
Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while the majority of the senator-judges
held their tongues in check, those allied with Aquino took over the role of the
prosecutors. They tried to badger bank officials who were summoned to testify on
Corona's accounts, but the witnesses stuck to their testimony that the bank
documents presented by the congressmen-prosecutors were falsified.
Outside the halls of the Senate, while the Corona impeachment proceedings
were still on-going, no less than President Aquino continued to verbally assault
Corona in a student forum in a college in Manila, accusing the magistrate of
lying about his wealth. And in the same breath he even took a contemptuous swipe
at the Senate court when he blurted out: "Are we going to allow only a few to
decide for all of us?"
Corona, reacting to the presidential tirades, returned Aquino's verbal punch
by calling on him to "keep his hands off" the Senate proceedings, and then
challenged him to make his own public disclosure of his wealth as well as the
psychiatric reports on his mental health.
"Perhaps, Mr. President," Corona said. "It's best that you also disclose your
SALN and explain it to the people…Maybe you should also include your bank
accounts and psychological records which have long been an issue. We have an
obligation to prove to our people that we are mentally fit to lead."
In the wake of the "word war" between Aquino and Corona, several
senator-judges, except the President's allies among them, appealed to both of
them to cease their verbal exchanges.
Corona, who has vowed to fight it out to prove his innocence before the
impeachment court, willingly complied, but Aquino, who has been publicly
insulting Corona ever since Day One of his presidency, adamantly refused to heed
the plea.
"I think I'm within my rights to express my opinions…to keep quiet about the
whole thing is wrong," Aquino pouted, a sign that he hates being told what to do
or not to do, especially in his ceaseless drive to oust Corona as chief justice
of the Supreme Court. That's the reason why he defied the plea not to intervene
in the impeachment trial that he himself had plotted with his compliant
political allies in Congress.
The psychiatric records of Aquino surfaced during the 2010 presidential
campaign, but the talks about it faded soon after he won the elections. But now
that those reports have been resuscitated by Corona, despite Malacañang's
frenetic mouthpieces to nip the issue in the bud, people want to be assured that
the President Noynoy does not really suffer from any mental disorder that could
affect his capacity to lead the nation.
Still, pundits and political observers, untouched by the yellow-colored
virus, are wondering who else would be brave enough to tell Noynoy to hold his
tongue in check and stop his relentless anti- Corona ejaculations and let the
Senate impeachment tribunal carry out its constitutionally-mandated duty to
decide whether the Chief Magistrate is guilty or not?
At this point in time, the answer may be found in an excerpt from "Power of
the Tongue" by St. James: "The tongue is a little member of the human body…it is
an unrighteous world, but no human being can tame the tongue – a restless evil,
full of deadly poison!"
***
Quote of the Day: "There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a
politician is not capable; for in politics there is no honor." – Benjamin
Disraeli
Thought of the Day: "The Good Lord set definite limits on man's wisdom,
but set no limits on his stupidity…" – Konrad Adenauer
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
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