TURN
MANILA, MARCH 9, 2012 (TRIBUNE) Chief Justice Renato Corona appears
to be on a media blitz, as the defense team prepares for its turn at the trial,
since Corona and his defense counsels are expected to start submitting their
pieces of evidence as well as their witnesses to disprove the charges leveled
against the Chief Justice in at least three Articles of Impeachment.
Earlier, it was the prosecution and its propaganda spokesmen who kept up with
their media blitz, making it appear that their case against the CJ was airtight
and that there was no way his defense lawyers can explain away his alleged
millions in his bank accounts.
And they have not stopped calling for his resignation, despite the trial
being at an advance stage at this point, intimating that the CJ is afraid of
testifying before the Senate Court because of his fear at being humiliated.
That is a pretty strange reaction, coming as it does from a prosecution panel
and congressional allies who constantly crow that they have already won the
case. If the CJ loses the case, it stands to reason that he will be out of the
SC position, so why are they trying to exert pressure for him to resign and even
portray Corona as being afraid to testify?
The Chief Justice appears to now be giving them a dose of their own medicine.
He was all over a radio-TV network being interviewed and answering all questions
posed to him by the anchors — including that which was of a personal nature,
such as his having had an alleged romantic liaison with a woman who bore him two
children, which was laughed off by him and his wife, who was in the studios.
Quite frankly, the CJ did very well in candid interviews, and on TV, being a
cool medium, he seemed to handle the medium well, as he was not certainly not a
turn off at all. He came off explaining his side, in a soft-spoken manner at
that, and credibly and confidently.
He was, to many who do not know him, an amiable person who not only knew what
he was talking about but was also dignified and not at all coming off as a
braggart, unlike the prosecution spokesmen who have projected themselves as such
and have moreover been caught at lying by the general public on their claims of
their "preponderance of evidence" submitted to serve as proof of their charges
against the CJ.
That's really a laugh, if one who follows the trial alreadt knows, since the
prosecution, despite the number of witnesses called and documents presented,
failed to prove its case, especially on Articles 3 and 7.
While Article 2, which the prosecution claims is its strongest suit and on
which it relies to get Corona convicted, the truth is, the documentary evidence
of the CJ's Statement of Assets and Liabilities Networth (SALn) is only one side
of the picture and the defense no doubt will have explanations on this. As for
his alleged millions in the bank, even that can be explained, as the CJ himself
said in the TV interview yesterday.
It has to be pointed out that the prosecution clearly failed to prove that
graft and corruption accompanied the deposits in the bank accounts of Corona,
which charge can be found in Article 2.3.
As for the prosecution's claim of the CJ's "suspected" and "reported"
illegally obtained wealth, under Article 2.4, even that does not apply, given
the fact that the Senate court had already ruled that Article 2.4 has been
scrapped.
About the only justification for the prosecution to include the deposits in
the accounts under the CJ's name is to tie this up with his SALn where he was
supposed to have merely stated that his cash in bank was only P 3.5 million as
against what the prosecution's math says is P35 million plus $700,000 in the
CJ's dollar account. But there really is nothing about bank accounts in 2.1, 2.2
or 2.3.
But all this, said the CJ, can be easily explained. And if explained well and
credibly, the prosecution will certainly have rotten tomatoes thrown at their
faces.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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