A corona of tricks and drama

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

To have the highest justice sit on the witness stand is no joke. But, midnight Chief Justice Renato Corona’s appearance in front of the senator-judges of the Impeachment Court turned out to be one – a big joke in fact.

Since it was the chief justice talking to millions whose eyes were glued to televisions, all along I thought his more than 20-page thick prepared statement which he called “opening statement” could have been one that was scholarly written and had answers to hanging questions.

Instead, it was a piece of document that contained praises for himself, his wife and children; accusations against his perceived enemies such as the Basas who are his wife’s kin, President Aquino, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, Senator Frank Drilon and the 188 congressmen who impeached him. Although he denied having 82 dollar bank accounts, he accepted that he had only four. At least that was proof that he had foreign deposits.

For an ordinary audience, Corona’s act of walking out without permission from the court can be equated to the behavior of a plain brat who can just walk away anytime he wishes to. Should this be the act of the highest magistrate of a country?

By walking out without first being discharged, the midnight chief justice drove a message across that he is more supreme than the Constitution and so he is exempted from the rules. He sent us the message the he can not be bounded by the processes of questioning for the purpose of discovering the truthfulness of his statements but at the same time he convicted himself.

As a court judge who claimed to have practiced law for years, he was well-versed with the rules that ordinary lawyers know. But when Corona took the witness stand last Tuesday, the man tasked to uphold the Constitution became the primary law-breaker. This country does not deserve a law-breaker in the Supreme Court. Corona should be disbarred and removed from court. His kind should be wiped out.

Midnight chief justice is street-smart. Before finally fulfilling his own declaration to appear before the impeachment court, he made a condition that Ombudsman Carpio-Morales and three of his accusers be questioned first. They were deceived. For the sake of truth and fairness, they gave in to Corona’s request, attended and were cross-examined, not knowing that the midnight justice would not do the same.

To make his appearance more effective and dramatic, he paused for a number of times in between his very long “opening introduction” about him and appeared to have tears around his eyes. After almost three hours, he said he was about ready to finish and brought out a paper and pen.

He signed the paper in front of the impeachment court that he described as a waiver allowing the inspection of his dollar and peso bank accounts, but that it would only be submitted to the court on the condition that Sen. Drilon and the 188 congressmen who impeached him also sign a similar waiver. Fantabuloustic!

He imposed a condition that he knew would not be followed after all. He knew that not all of them would sign any waiver because they were not on trial anyway. The drama was well planned and well directed. It made people’s emotions and expressions in the senate gallery vary.

Some were happy and surprised while others were shocked and slumped back on their seats. In another corner, Corona’s rah-rah boys and girls clapped their hands. Maybe the presiding judge was also confused that he banged his gavel many times. I was not also sure why people were clapping. It might be that they were applauding Corona’s trick and his dramatics, or maybe they were happy that he just sunk deeper into conviction when he disrespected the court of senator-judges.  

Even lead defense counsel Serrafin Cuevas was confused. As if he was saying to himself that the walkout was not part of the whole plan. It was a script that was inserted lately. In a news interview after the incident, Drilon said “somebody” else aside from Cuevas was directing the show. It appeared to him that Cuevas was no longer in control of his defense team.

There were also reports that Cuevas tried to resign from the team because of a “conflict of opinion” with Atty. Judd Roy. The defense lawyers claimed that what Corona did was not known to them. But contrary to that, evidence shows that the whole thing was planned, except that the walkout was not supposed to be part of it.

According to the defense lawyers, Corona was unable to take lunch, was diabetic and had an attack of low blood sugar. But when the midnight justice stood and left the witness stand, he was moving fast that everybody was taken by surprise. He almost got out of the building and never to return if Enrile did not order guards to close all exits. Corona’s alertness was no sign of a hypoglycemia attack. Even his wife and daughter did not look to be surprised. They were not acting like Corona was encountering an emergency situation. They were just walking beside him as if they knew the next part of the drama.

There was a time in Corona’s long opening statement when he asked those in the gallery to look straight into his eyes “to see who was telling the truth.” But when he came back to the witness stand because he was unable to escape from the building, he just looked down. This time, he was afraid to look at anyone straight in the eye. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com