FLATTERERS
MANILA, MARCH 1, 2012 (MALAYA) BY NESTOR MATA - THE big, big
trouble with President Noynoy Aquino, ever since he came to power, is that he's
surrounded by sycophants, servile and self-seeking flatterers who have been
misguiding him, especially, on his intervention in the ongoing impeachment trial
of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Not only this, Aquino has been misled politically and legally by them into
believing that, with all his presidential powers and government resources, he
can do anything to satisfy his vindictive appetite even in contravention of the
Constitution and its ordained mandates for due process, rule of law, and the
separation of powers of the co-equal three branches of the government under a
democracy.
That's why Aquino went on to conspire with his allies in the House of
Representatives in the filing an impeachment complaint against Corona. That
complaint, as you all well remember, was signed by 188 congressmen, without
bothering to read it, and dispatched posthaste to the Senate for trial. It was
part of his insidious plot to wreak vengeance, even by foul means, on his
predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her official appointees, including the
chief justice.
Now, on the 27th day of Corona's trial before the Senate impeachment court,
the case is turning out to be an awful disaster for his band of
congressmen-prosecutors, who from the start have been fumbling, bumbling and
blindly groping for proofs and witnesses to prove their hastily-prepared and
flawed Articles of Impeachment against the demonized magistrate of the land.
Aquino's panel of congressmen-prosecutors, as well as some 50 private lawyers
employed to assist them, with their disputatious, specious and logically invalid
arguments, have failed to prove their case against Corona beyond reasonable
doubt in the contemplation of the presiding judge, Senate President Juan Ponce
Enrile, and senator-judges, except perhaps Aquino's allies among them.
Oh yes, apart from his relentless tirades against Corona outside the halls of
the Senate, Aquino, mindless of being accused of unlawful interference in the
Senate proceedings, claimed that his prosecution panel had succeeded in proving
Corona's guilt, even though the impeachment court still has to hear the side of
the defense panel.
Aquino also made the startling comment that from some "political dimension"
in the testimony of his secretary of justice as a witness was not "hearsay," as
ruled by the court, which must have made the senator-judges, prosecutors and
defense lawyers, law professors and their students wonder from what planet he
got such legal lore.
Alas, after his decades-long stint as congressman and senator, Aquino seems
not to have learned at all the basic legal processes in our democratic system of
government and that he has forgotten his oath as president to obey, protect and
preserve the Constitution!
And now, apparently sensing that his blundering prosecutors, with their
eristic reasoning, may have utterly failed to prove their charges against
Corona, Aquino and his political henchmen are planning "to bring their case to
the people" even though the Senate impeachment court still has to hear the
defense side before it can render its final judgment to convict or acquit
Corona.
They plan to present their "evidence" (some of which turned out to have been
illegally obtained) to the public even though these have not been evaluated and
accepted by the Senate court as admissible evidence. It's a "house- to- house,"
" district- to- district, "province-to- province" information campaign.
However, it's not an information drive at all, but a disinformation drive.
And it's designed to get public support and pressure the senator-judges to
convict the chief magistrate.
But, they commented, it's going to be an exercise in futility. A recent
nationwide public opinion survey has shown that a big majority of the general
public will abide by whatever decision, be it conviction or acquittal, the
Senate impeachment court may make.
What appears clear, they also noted, is that Noynoy's senator-judges do not
have the numbers to convict Corona. But his other political allies, who always
bow and say "amen" to the diktats of their master in the Palace, will do
anything and everything, even to the extent of defying constitutionally ordained
principles of due process and the rule of law, to get Corona ousted.
Let's see what else the President's sycophantic officials, servile political
allies and self-seeking flatterers will whisper in his ears in the coming days
that, who knows, might just lead to his political fallout, make him a lame duck
even before his term ends in 2016, or impeachment?
***
Quote of the Day: "Partisanship is our great curse. We too readily assume
that everything has two sides and that it is our duty to be on one side or the
other." – James Harvey Robinson
Thought of the Day: "We struggle about with all our problems and
frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up. That's the
answer to any problem. Just look up!" – ANON
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
