Narrative

The Chief Justice took nearly three hours to go through his “opening statement” — which turned out to be a detailed weaving of his own narrative concerning the bizarre impeachment trial we all had to endure for six months now.

It was a wordy but gripping narrative. Its objective was clearly to convince the public that his version of things is superior to that peddled by the well-oiled administration propaganda machine. For months, the Chief Justice was subjected to a ruthless campaign of vilification, including the wildest insinuations and fabricated government reports.

Corona endured the vilification, without the means and the organization to match the propaganda campaign waged against him. His appearance before the impeachment court was his last best chance to present the public his truth.

It could not but be a lengthy presentation. So many peripheral issues have been raised through the long course of this trial intended mainly to impugn the person of the Chief Justice. Corona clearly felt compelled to clarify this mass of side issues: the Basa family feud, the exaggerated presentation of his accounts, imputation of wrongdoing regarding what might be nothing more than a propensity to save.

The Chief Justice clearly invested much emotion in his presentation. At the end of it, the diabetic man succumbed to hypoglycemia. Feeling on the verge of collapsing, he asked to be excused and started walking out of the Senate. It seemed like he was walking out of the trial — although his lawyers insist that was not the intention.

The main item the Chief Justice needed to address before the impeachment court was nearly buried in the long speech and the drama that followed it.

The prosecution’s case for conviction has really dwindled into one charge: that significant assets were not declared in the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) the Chief Justice filed. All the other items in the pompous (but flimsy) articles of impeachment filed by the House have fallen off the table.

On the dollar accounts, Corona says that the absolute secrecy the law accords foreign currency deposits is the operational consideration explaining their non-inclusion in the SALN. There is no jurisprudence governing this.

On the peso accounts exceeding what was declared in the SALN, the Chief Justice claims these include co-mingled funds and not properly his. On that consideration, they were not declared in the SALN.

These are the only issues bearing on the last article of impeachment left on the table. The impeachment court will make its judgment on the basis of some standard of accuracy on SALN reporting that is not precisely codified.

More basic, the impeachment court must decide if inaccuracy in the reporting of the SALN in enough ground for impeachment. The charge of betraying the public trust is general and nebulous. The Senate in this case will have to set a realistic standard for the gravity of offense required to convict in an impeachment case.

However that standard is set, it could potentially open a Pandora’s Box for all public officials.

 Sugar

The Chief Justice, in his presentation, alleged he was targeted for persecution because of the Supreme Court’s decision on Hacienda Luisita. It might be difficult to pull in hard evidence to support this allegation.

It is not clear if the President’s family intended, before the Court’s decision ordering the distribution of the land to the farmers, to continue operating the estate as a sugar plantation. The economic viability of the sugar industry is now severely challenged.

At the onset of 2015, the tariff barrier protecting our sugar industry will be removed. This is the effect of our participation in the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA). There is little possibility that schedule could be delayed any further.

The removal of protective tariffs will expose Philippine sugar to intense competition, especially from Thailand. For decades, the Thai government strategically modernized its sugar sector. Thai sugar seriously undercuts Philippine sugar.

There are several reasons Philippine sugar is probably the most expensive in the world. Our sugar plantations are not contiguous, militating against mechanization of production. Most of our sugar mills use antiquated technology, making them comparatively inefficient.

The only way we can even contemplate effectively competing against Thai sugar in an open market is to rapidly modernize our mill technology. This is best done in areas where there is sufficient concentration and volume of cane production.

Therefore, the only viable area for modernizing our mill technology is Negros Island. Here there is enough concentration of cane plantations and enough volume of production to support investments in modernizing mill technology. Urgent government support for mill modernization is necessary, considering free trade in sugar in only two-and-a-half years away.

Although Luisita is said to be the largest single plantation in the country, there might not be enough cane production in Tarlac province to support massive investments in mill modernization. Production scale is key to making technological innovation financially viable.

This means that the future for sugar production in Luisita is rather bleak. Its produce cannot be competitively priced. Modernization cannot attract investments. This is why the hacienda has encountered business problems.

For the current owners of this plantation, the most profitable way forward is to price up land values, taking advantage of infra buildup around the hacienda. The Supreme Court, however, has pegged the price of land at Luisita at the 1989 level for purposes of redistribution to farmer-beneficiaries. The opportunity costs are, to say the least, immense.