Impeachment: Haste really makes waste!

When politics becomes more important as an issue rather than the needs of our people, then the people must suffer. This is exactly my thoughts when I read that the cutting down of the budget of Cebu City from P278.9 million for field services has been reduced to P138.8 million, a difference of P140 million. If you ask me, there is no contingency for unexpected health problems like a potential resurgence of the dengue fever, which can be a huge cost to the Cebu City Health Department.

But then, this is what happens when you have too many smart people in the City Council whose only thoughts are about their political survival, after all, the 2013 elections are nearing and they want to make sure that their political masters are pleased with their performance. That’s of course due to the fact that many of our councilors have already forgotten that their true masters are the electorate, their constituents and the voter. But then, the problem stems from the fact that the majority of our voters unfortunately still sell their votes to the highest bidder, that’s why we’re in such a mess!

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I was watching on TV that discussion between lead House prosecutor Neil Tupas and Senate Presiding Judge Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE) when Rep. Tupas requested the Senate Impeachment court to be “liberal” on the prosecution’s request. JPE wanted to know what Rep. Tupas meant by being liberal? But Rep. Tupas could not give him any response. So JPE asked whether the Senate Court should allow evidence without any proof of authenticity. No response from Rep. Tupas. Then JPE asked Rep. Tupas whether he meant that the Senate Impeachment court should entertain hearsay as evidence? There was only silence from the Prosecution.

Why did that conversation unfold? Let me tell you the many ways. Rep. Neil Tupas and of course the Palace Rasputin’s have engaged their propaganda machinery to demolish the character of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona in the media, hence they already did their best to destroy the credibility of CJ Corona.

Proof of this was an interview by one TV station of the people on the street where a reporter with the photo of CJ Corona showed it to the ordinary people. Surprisingly, few recognized the Chief Justice, while those that did were asked as to what he has done, and most of the people said, that he enriched himself while in government service. This is what is known as “Trial by Public Opinion” which is not subjected to any court rules.

But thankfully, even our outdated and defective 1987 Constitution still guarantees us certain rights, like for instance, we have the right of innocence until our guilt is proven. But in the case of public opinion, we already declared someone guilty even if the person is not. I guess this is the problem that the courts are having in the mass murder case of Zaldy Ampatuan, who many have already publicly declared as guilty.

However, the protection by the Constitution of our basic rights, as JPE clearly pointed out, has been kept intact in the Senate Impeachment trial. While the Senate Impeachment trial doesn’t follow the usual judicial trial procedures, however that Constitutional guarantees are still intact.

Now that we are seeing this problem out in the open, we can clearly see that the 188 Congressmen and women who signed that hastily made impeachment complaint as demanded by Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III have somehow done the prosecutors a disfavor. In an impeachment case, Congress actually acts as the fiscal. If we are aggrieved, we first have to go to the fiscal to find out whether there is a prima facie evidence to proceed with the filing of the case in court.

If the 188 who signed the complaint only had this deliberated in the Plenary Hall, then these problems would have surfaced, and then Rep. Tupas would have learned much from the discussion and a more proper impeachment complaint could have been forwarded in the Senate. But as it is, the discussion is now focused on whether the Prosecution can present this or that evidence, and naturally the Defense have to block whatever evidence that the prosecution may come up with, especially if they are no longer in line with the articles of impeachment.

Article II for instance is crystal clear, as it accuses the Chief Justice of not coming up with his Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net worth (SALNs). But when the Defense showed that CJ Corona did in fact came up with his SALNs, now the prosecution wants to know whether or not what is reported in the SALNs are ill-gotten or not. But in the end, this is already a fishing expedition because they are not even sure which one in CJ Corona’s SALN was ill-gotten? This is truly a case of “haste makes waste!”

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