Corona
trial relates to the just war against corruption
8:01 pm | Tuesday, March 13th, 2012
The Constitution
provides for an impeachment process to immediately remove from office a
key official who betrays the public trust.
However, in the
warped Philippine socio-political setting, successfully removing an
official through the impeachment process is as likely as the Ampatuans
becoming Carmelite nuns.
Removing erring
Philippine officials, no matter what process is involved, is extremely
difficult. Even Justices and judges with notoriously questionable reputations
and exorbitant lifestyles that reek of corruption remain unchecked and
unpunished. Enough effective mechanisms are just not there to correct the whole
sorry mess.
The impeachment
process is inherently defective and bound to fail in accomplishing its purpose
of removing key officials who ought to be removed. We have seen the systemic
defects in the Estrada impeachment trial. We are seeing it again
now.
For lack of imagination,
the framers of the Philippine Constitution simply followed the American
Impeachment Court model. In the U.S., the 2/3 vote needed to remove
a key official amounts to 67 Senators and the 1/3 vote needed to acquit amounts
to 34 Senators.
In the Philippines,
16 Senators are needed to convict whereas only eight Senators are needed to
acquit. It seems grossly unfair to the citizenry that their future well being
can be sabotaged by just eight people – who might not be that concerned about
the national welfare.
In general, the
system works in the U.S. because democratic institutions are deeply embedded
and more Senators are involved which means more thinking heads. The system does
not work well in the Philippines.
We really ought to
get away from this colonial mentality of thinking that what works well in the
U.S. will also automatically work well for us. The factual cultural settings in
America re political, economic and social situations are far different from
those in the Philippines. It’s best for us to do our own original
thinking to solve problems unique to our situation.
This monkey see,
monkey do approach – when conditions are different – often result in solvable
problems becoming more complex and unsolvable. Such is the case with the
impeachment process in the Philippines which is a time consuming expensive
exercise in futility. It simply does not work in efficiently and effectively
removing officials who betray the public trust.
The cold
undeniable reality is that the Impeachment Court is composed of politician
Senator-judges. Too many of our politicians do not think in terms of primarily
putting truth, justice, honor, morality and the national interest above
partisan and personal considerations. Our leaders have consistently betrayed
us.
Hunger, ignorance,
disease, homelessness and other forms of human sufferings resulting from mass
poverty is a common countrywide situation. National and local politicians
on all levels of government make inane policies and decisions – focused
not so much in solving problems but based on partisan or personal selfish
agendas. As such, neighbor countries refer to us as “Asia’s basket case”.
This impeachment
trial is a classic illustration of what is wrong with the Philippines. Here,
the national interest is clearly involved. The country needs an honest and
efficient judicial system in order to bring justice to the people. If all the
Senators were in good faith and cared more for the interest of the people than
their own selfish personal and partisan interests - they would be able to
easily focus on accomplishing the purpose for which the Impeachment
Court was instituted. It would then not take long for them to make
a decision.
They would
immediately concentrate on getting any and all relevant information relating to
the alleged wrongful acts of the accused and his moral character – in order to
properly decide on whether to acquit or find him guilty.
If Corona were
truly innocent and wanted to vindicate his honor – he also would want the
entire truth about his actions and character to be revealed. He can then
explain his circumstances.
Corona apparently
has enormous wealth. He declares an annual fixed salary and some perks as his
only income but these appear insufficient to justify his numerous real estate
holdings and millions in peso and dollar bank deposits. He also does not
report his true wealth in his SALN. To common ordinary
citizens, these series of omissions and misrepresentations persuasively
suggest that Corona appears to be engaged in dishonesty and is receiving
huge sums of money from some sources.
It is very
conceivable that the discovered Corona assets is just a tip of the iceberg.
People will never know and he will always be under a cloud of suspicion unless
he himself acts in good faith and reveals all of his holdings – including
deposits in other banks, additional real estate properties and corporate
shares.
His lawyers have
been moving heaven and earth to keep evidence related to his financials from
being admitted. Some Senators have noticeably also been involved in
excluding the admission of a lot of damaging evidence against him – citing all
kinds of legal technicalities.
The main issue in
an impeachment trial is the moral character of the accused who as a public
servant is supposed to be an honest moral person. Any evidence that relates to
his moral character should be material and relevant.
Here, the rights
and interest of the people to obtain justice and have honest public servants
should weigh heavily against the rights of the accused re exclusion of
evidence. Senator-judges can and should in fact consider even evidence
and facts not admitted technically in court. They should fill in the blank
spaces to see the truth and the big picture about the accused – when they
decide on his guilt or his innocence.
This Corona
Impeachment Court has ruled repeatedly against admitting evidence touching
on the wrongful acts or moral character of the accused.
In fact, the very first ruling of the Court was to excuse Corona and his family
from appearing in Court. The Presiding Senator reasoned that their
appearances would violate their right against self incrimination. I went to law
school in the United States and have been practicing law here for more than
thirty years. I still have to see a court stand in the shoes of the defendant
and on his or her behalf claim this Fifth Amendment Constitutional right
against self incrimination.
This right or
privilege against self incrimination is personal and belongs to the accused. It
is when he is being asked a question or being asked to testify during a court
or related proceeding that he can assert this right. Here
the Court’s Presiding Senator Juan Ponce Enrile asserted this right for
Corona and his family without them being present in court.
Technically, Enrile has no legal standing to do this even if he might
have been in good faith in zealously protecting Corona’s Constitutional rights.
Enrile may have made a mistake but nevertheless, a majority of the
Senator-judges affirmed his ruling. The country has to live with this mistake.
Not even President
Bill Clinton was excused from appearing in his trial. The Presiding Officer did
not excuse his appearance on grounds that the trial might infringe on his right
against self incrimination as nothing would have prevented Clinton from
asserting this right during his trial and related proceedings.
How can Impeachment
Court Senator-Judges determine the moral character of the accused public
official Corona and the extent of his wrongdoing – if evidences of his
wrongdoing are kept from being admitted? How terrible is the injustice
inflicted on his victims – the Filipino people – when it is some Senator-Judges
themselves who are engaged in preventing relevant evidence and facts from
being presented?
Some
Senator-Judges rationalize their actions in preventing damning evidence
against Corona from being admitted by citing rules of evidence or displaying
mock concerns for the civil rights of the accused or by pointing to the
incompetence of the prosecution.
Rules of law,
whether regarding evidence or on some other issues – are meant to serve the
ends of justice. They are not meant to be abused by the accused to hide his
guilt. The accused’s civil rights are not violated if he is given the
opportunity to explain and to be heard.
Our people groan
from the heavy burdens caused by mass poverty and widespread corruption. They
cry out to the high heavens for justice. Dishonest calloused Justices and
judges are deaf to their cries. They will groan and cry some more if they feel
that they are again being screwed in this impeachment trial. We cannot allow
ourselves to forever be victims of dishonest greedy officials placed in power
to serve but instead betray us.
This impeachment
case is crucial in this war against corruption. The country needs an
honest and efficient judicial system to rid the country of corrupt government
officials through proper prosecutions and trials. The Chief Justice who leads
the Judicial Branch, like any leader, is supposed to lead by example. The
country cannot have a clean judicial system if its head and the other Justices
have questionable integrities and perceived as lacking the moral authority to
lead.
This impeachment
trial relates to President Aquino’s all out war against corruption which the
people support.
Can President
Aquino and the people afford to lose this war?
This war against
massive corruption in the country has to do with improving the lives of all our
people. This impeachment trial is directly related to that war. The Chief
Justice of the highest court in the land is undergoing trial in a confused
Senatorial Impeachment Court proceeding. The people cannot rely on an unreliable
impeachment system to rid the country of undesirable erring officials.
This war is between
the Corona and GMA forces on the one side and the good people of the
Philippines and President Aquino on the other side. Inevitably,
the war against corruption is a war of good versus evil.
Like a politician,
Corona holds rallies giving the impression of mass support – but attended
mostly by forced to attend INC members – who certainly do not represent the
sentiments of millions of Filipinos.
On the people’s side
in this war against corruption are millions of common Filipinos: taxi,
jitney and tricycle drivers, farmers, factory workers, clerks, computer
workers, office workers, businessmen, dentists, doctors, accountants,
engineers, students, lawyers, academicians, teachers, nuns, priests and
hundreds of thousands of overseas Filipinos (toiling in distant lands because
of corruption in the homeland).
Like them, I have
nothing personal against Corona – but just want a better life for all
Filipinos. We cannot have that unless we rid the country of institutionalized
corruption. How I wish Corona and some Arroyo appointed Justices would just
resign and redeem themselves by helping to clean out the judicial system and
make it more efficient for the good of all. Within all of us are seeds of good
and evil – and we are always free to decide one way or the other.
On the people’s
side also is President Simeon Benigno Aquino who wants to rid the country of
corruption. Some well-meaning Senators are also on this same side.
The people need to
now support Aquino’s all out war against corruption. This is a rare
national opportunity to bring about significant lasting reforms.
Four years from now
we will have a new president. In our history, only two presidents are
known not to have engaged in corruption so the odds are against us. If the next
one is corrupt, then we are back to square one. Worst because then the country
would be drowned with a sense of hopelessness and the thought that we had a
chance to rid the country of corruption but it did not happen. Many
will then also conclude that it is impossible to have reforms through peaceful
means.
This Impeachment
Court will likely not succeed in removing Corona as Chief Justice – even if he
deserves to be removed. As a removal system for erring key officials, it
is dysfunctionally ineffective. Having politician Senators as judges is simply
not going to work. Partisan politics and personal agendas will simply prevent
the gathering of 16 votes necessary to remove him from office. It did not work
in Estrada’s impeachment trial. It’s not working now nor is it likely to work
in future impeachment cases.
Given that the
system is defective and that the Constitution need to be amended in order to
fix a broken impeachment system, should the people then just accept the
partisan and personal agenda based decision of eight or more Senator-judges –
that will drastically affect the future well being of millions of Filipinos?
The people and Aquino should refuse to be fools and fight tooth and nail for
the common good.
If eight or more
Senators acquit Corona despite enough evidence showing that he is
not morally fit to continue on as Chief Justice, they will likely justify their
decision by claiming that the prosecution did not do a good job. The
prosecution’s competence or lack of it will be used as a convenient excuse to
justify the unjustifiable even if the real issues are Corona’s guilt and
moral character and not the prosecution’s competence.
In the Estrada
impeachment trial, which was watched closely on TV, radio and printed media –
the people concluded in their hearts and minds – that Estrada was guilty as
hell. Correctly, they resorted to defending the people and used their
numbers to forcibly excise him from office when they concluded that many
of the Senators were betraying them. The country belongs to the people and not
to a crooked few.
If the system does
not work, the people must protect themselves and future generations using
alternative means in removing erring officials. People power is a
legitimate means of protecting the people’s interest when the mechanisms of
government fail to do so.
The US Constitution
was written by very wise men who learned from the lessons of history that at
any time, government can fall into the wrong hands and can be used to oppress
and/or steal from the people. Modern examples are the governments of Marcos,
Mugabe, Khadafy, Hussein, Ceseascu, Mubarak, etc. As such, they made sure that
the people had the right to bear arms and wrote this in stone in the US
Constitution – in case the people needed to defend themselves against the
government.
The people are
looking to President Aquino to provide strong leadership in this war against
corruption and by implication against the Corona forces. He was elected by millions
of people based on his anti-corruption promise and continues to maintain their
trust.
Aside from this
mandate, he also has the support of the United States and a sympathetic global
community in the fight against corruption and the quest for a better life for
all Filipinos.
Capitalizing on all
of this support and utilizing his legitimate powers, aside from the impeachment
process, Aquino can bring down erring Justices and judges using other legal
means in order to clean up the judicial system.
For example. Corona
apparently has enormous wealth. The fact is that at some points of time , he
continuously was earning huge sums of money from either legitimate or
illegitimate sources – in order to acquire his various real property holdings
and millions of peso and dollar deposits. He obviously did not declare
these incomes in his annual income tax papers. This alone provides enough
probable cause which opens him to all kinds of possible charges including
income tax fraud, misrepresentation, conversion, etc.
Many other legal
tools can be used including the mutual legal assistance treaty with the U.S. to
help criminally prosecute erring officials with assets in the U.S. Aquino’s
government should use all of the resources available.
Aquino should also
have the Department of Justice recruit many sharp idealistic young lawyer
prosecutors and honest intelligent investigators – in order to successfully
prosecute as many corrupt officials as possible. He needs this special team to
rid the country of mass corruption. This is an absolute necessity to accomplish
the difficult task of eradicating mass corruption. All this talk about us
being his bosses, “daang matuwid”, no “wang wang” – is just empty talk,
meaningless slogans and vocal cosmetics – if no significant major speedy
measurable reforms result.
Corona was elected
as Chief Justice by only one person who is presently detained. His patroness
former President GMA, who is widely perceived as corrupt – is accused of
plunder and election sabotage among other serious charges. Millions of honest
citizens elected Aquino whereas only one non-credible person elected
Corona.
Politically, Aquino
cannot afford to lose to Corona in this war. If with all his powers as
President and the support of the people and the international community, he is
still unable to influence the removal of Corona from office through this
impeachment process or by using other legitimate alternatives – he will lose
face and credibility. People will lose their faith in him and see him as a weak
leader. Then he and we are all screwed.
Neither Aquino nor
the people can afford to lose in this all out war against corruption and mass
poverty. So much is at stake. We need to end mass suffering and fight for a
better future for all. It’s a now or never situation. To be involved in this
effort to create a better Philippines if not a better world – is a sacred
obligation to God, our fellowmen and ourselves.This endemic culture of
corruption which permeates government and Philippine society from the very top to
to the very bottom must be vaporized – eradicated – if we are to change the
lives of millions of Filipinos for the better. Who else will be involved in
this all-out war in the Philippines except us Filipinos wherever we are in this
world?
No comments:
Post a Comment