JUAN MERCADO: HOLLOW
MEN
MANILA, MAY 22, 2012
(INQUIRER) By: Juan L. Mercado - What makes the embattled
23rd Supreme Court chief tick?
Renato Corona testifies before the impeachment court
today—finally. Will we glimpse the tragedy of hollow men?
For seven weeks, Corona used text messages, press releases and speeches to
parry charges. Now the Chief is gung-ho, the defense crows. Simulation drills or
"scenario building" closed chinks in their man's armor of a thousand-and-one
legal quibbles.
In this trial, "legal technicalities (took) precedence against all other
considerations—in the name of law," notes Melba Padilla Maggay from the
Institute for Studies in Church and Culture. The system is "stacked up against …
prying (for) the truth."
Corona holds up "memory of the dictatorship… as a specter," Maggay adds.
"Ferdinand Marcos Jr., scion of the strongman, and Miriam Defensor-Santiago,
erstwhile staunch ally of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, make solemn noises about
their fears of the 'unbridled powers' of the ombudsman." Judges can be hollow
men too.
The "capo" will shred charges of P677 million in unexplained wealth, the
defense predicts. He won't even work up a sweat to explain a P36.7 million
"discrepancy" between his pay envelope and his statement of assets, liabilities
and net worth.
Iglesia ni Cristo covertly badgered senator-judges to spring Corona, Inquirer
reported. Rep. Niel Tupas derailed, on March 20 last year, an INC campaign to
jettison the impeachment raps against then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. But
she bailed out.
Court employees pray for Corona and family. So does Franciscan Sr. Flor Maria
Basa, who entered the convent 65 years back. The nun learned that the Manila
City government paid P34 million for their ancestral Basa-Guidote estate.
Corona's daughter bagged estate shares for P28,000. Who pocketed my inheritance,
90-year-old Sister Flory must be wondering.
Citizens seek direct replies to the Anti-Money Laundering Council report and
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales' testimony. That'd help get a "feel" if Corona
measures up to the office.
"Do not cry, Pepito," the fifth chief justice comforted his son, before
facing a Japanese firing squad in Lanao del Sur on May 2, 1942. Jose Abad Santos
refused to collaborate. "It is an honor to die for one's country," he said. "Not
everybody has that chance."
All have the chance to live for one's country though. Remember Anita Carpon,
President Gloria Arroyo's manicurist? Before leaving Malacañang, Arroyo signed
hundreds of midnight appointments, including Carpon's directorship in Pag-Ibig
Fund. "No," said Carpon to the two-year sinecure with P120,000 in monthly
paycheck.
Vatican Ambassador Manuel Moran also declined outgoing President Elipidio
Quirino's offer of a Supreme Court seat. Delicadeza dictated that
President-elect Ramon Magsaysay be allowed to appoint his choice to the vacant
position.
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and / I took the one less traveled by, / And
that has made all the difference," poet Robert Frost wrote in 1920. Corona
signed on as chief justice after Benigno Aquino III became president-elect.
Hollow men prefer that oft-traveled road.
"When the president-elect is known, the authority of the incumbent is only to
ensure orderly transfer of power," Ateneo's Joaquin Bernas wrote. If Arroyo
insists on naming a chief justice, she courts the possibility that Congress
would impeach him. That has come to pass.
Corona appears before the impeachment court as "de facto" chief justice, in
Sen. Rene Saguisag's words. Yesterday's choice crippled today's moral authority.
No "scenario building" will close that abyss in values. "O, call back yesterday,
bid time return," Richard II screamed— to no avail.
Kung ano ang binhi, siya ang bunga, old folk say. "What the seed is, so is
the fruit." However the impeachment court rules, hollow men will gag on
tomorrow's fruit. Unfortunately, the "what if" question is asked late.
What if Ferdinand Marcos didn't deteriorate into a kleptocrat? Suppose he
ignored Imelda? Imagine if he used martial power with the austere integrity of
Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew. We'd be among today's economic tigers. A grateful
people would have interred Marcos in Libingan ng mga Bayani. Today, he molders
in a Batac cold storage instead.
What if Benigno Aquino Jr. buckled?
Suppose Ninoy settled for a cushy slot in the dictatorship? He'd have left
cronies in his dust, but would be dwarfed. Corazon Aquino would not have led
People Power—that sparked Czechoslovakia's "Velvet Revolution," Lebanon's "Cedar
Uprising" and Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolt." Benigno III would be a balding
bachelor, not the Republic of the Philippines' 15th president.
What if Joseph Estrada honored his "Now power is with the people" pledges?
People Power II would not have erupted. Erap would not have entered history
books as the first convicted president.
What if President Arroyo kept her Rizal Day pledge not to seek reelection?
She would not have dialed to say: "Hello Garci." There would have been no
Ampatuan town massacre or midnight appointments like the ones made for the Chief
Justice and a Malacañang gardener.
Instead, Arroyo faces trial for election sabotage and plunder. "Not a stone
will be left upon a stone because you did not know the time of visitation," the
Galilean master said. That is the tragedy of hollow men.
Thomas More refused to play patsy to Henry VIII's divorce. Like Jose Abad
Santos, More was executed. A student betrayed him to govern the backward Celtic
fiefdom of Wales. Hollow men cringe at More's question: "Why Richard, it profits
a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. But for Wales?"
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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