Chief Justice Renato Corona acquits himself; PCOS bombshell

There are two meanings to the word acquit. The first is to free (someone) from a criminal charge by a verdict of not guilty. The other is to conduct oneself or perform in a specified way.

It is the second meaning of the word that applies to the Chief Justice’s return to the impeachment trial last Friday. Looking fragile, he sat on the witness box and prefaced his testimony by telling the court to allow him to answer in Pilipino because he would like to direct his answers to the Filipino people. This has become his only weapon against government and media forces arrayed against him.

Sources told this column that the night before he told friends who were concerned about his health that very few are given the opportunity to die for one’s country. If he died in the witness box, so be it. His condition was that precarious, Medical City authorities asked for a waiver that they would assume no responsibility for anything that could happen to him while in court. He overruled their order not to return.

In explaining Tuesday’s events he said he was a diabetic and has had a heart bypass operation. Explaining why he left the witness box, he said he had not slept for days and did not eat on that day. He still had two pages to read in his testimony to show he had not intended to leave but had to leave when he felt faint and nauseated. The worst thing that could have happened was for him “to vomit in front of the cameras.”

Despite his weakness, he was determined to clear his name of manufactured evidence from the prosecution and answered all questions with equanimity and poise. The accusation that he had 45 properties has been debunked. His answer to an accusation that he had $12 million in dollar deposits was an emphatic never. He had 80 million in peso deposits but a large portion of that came from the sale of a real estate belonging to his wife’s family.

To support his answers he told the court that his waiver was unconditional. They can look at all his deposits whether in peso or dollar. Asked who would corroborate his testimony, he said the bank managers. Therefore the court should subpoena them.

Curiously, the prosecution having demanded a waiver were no longer interested. The senator-judges were in a quandary on what to do. All in all it was a creditable performance with a reluctant senator-judge saying that the Chief Justice has adequately explained himself.

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He may have been in court to answer questions from the senators-judges, but he wanted to address his answers to the people.

He began by apologizing for leaving the court last Tuesday.

“Ako po ay nagpapakumbaba at humihingi ng paumanhin… hindi ko po inaasahan ang mga pangyayari. Hindi po madali yung pinagdaanan namin. Mahirap i-describe ‘yung sama ng loob at sakit ng loob na aming pinagdaanan the past six months,” Corona said. (“I am humbly asking for your forgiveness. I did not expect it. We went through difficult times. It’s difficult to describe the difficulties and heartaches we went through the past six months.”)

“Kaya ako po ay nagpapakumbaba na humihingi sa inyo, sa Senado, sa sambayanan, maging sa prosecution (panel) at sa aking defense team na hindi rin nila alam ang nangyari dahil sila mismo ay nagulat,” the Chief Justice added. (“That is why I am humbly asking for forgiveness, to the Senate, to the public, to the prosecution panel and to my defense team who were unaware of what happened to me.”)

“Nalaman n’yo ilang beses naman akong nabastos sa publiko ng ating Pangulo (Aquino) ngunit kahit na isang masamang salita wala kayong narinig sa amin. Hindi naman po ganoon ang aking ugali, di naman ako bastos na tao,” said the SC chief, adding that his sudden departure was unintentional. (“You’re all aware how many times I’ve been publicly humiliated by our President, but neither once did we say anything bad. That’s not my character. I’m not a rude person.”)

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While the senator judges were in caucus about Corona’s unconditional waiver a family drama took place at the other end of the room. The Corona, Basa families kissed and made up to clapping from the audience, the sergeant at arms had to keep them quiet. The mediator was Baby Nebrida who is close to both Mrs. Corona and the Basas. It was she, with the help of former Governor Sally Zaldivar, who got them together. The family had been estranged for 30 years wrangling about inherited properties.

When Betsy Basa told Baby that she wanted to hug Cristina Corona, she sprung into action to tell her. When Mrs. Corona heard that, she and her daughter Carla went to them. That was how they broke the ice and later posed for photographers to the dismay of the prosecutors who had been using the family rift as evidence against Corona.

The Basas arrived from the US last week to be at Corona’s trial. The chief justice told the court that a large part of the P80 million of his bank deposits came from the P34.7 million sale of the Basa-Guidote property in Manila in 2001, which he held in trust for the corporation.

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While our attention was riveted to the Corona impeachment trial, a bombshell was detonated on the PCOS machines. Neither the Comelec nor Smartmatic secured certificates for digital signatures.

This information comes from computer experts and lawyers who have banded to gether to make sure the questionable Smartmatic PCOS is not used again with all its defects. One of the flaws is the lack of digital sig natures. Smartmatic PCOS claimed there were machine signatures but Filipino computer expert Jun Estrella said “there is no such thing as “machine signatures.”

Dennis Villorente, OIC for the office of the Director General of National Computer Center (NCC) and formerly head of Technical Evaluation Committee for AES 2010, affirms there were no digital signatures in the Smartmatic PCOS automatic electoral system.

The proper digital signatures required by law must be provided by the entity qualified to issue certificates, in this case the NCC.

According to Atty Dindo Donato who researched on the issue. The definition and requirements of digital signatures are found only in the SC Rules on Electronic Evidence. They are not found in the E-Commerce Law or in its IRR that are limited only to the broader term electronic signatures.