A matter of ethics and law

It will take 16 senators-judges to clinch the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, but the way things are going at the trial at the Senate, that number does not seem likely to be mustered, with the sound of some senators as they question the witnesses, and in voting on the temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court, the turf of the chief justice. So let us gird ourselves to see our senators, or majority of them, at least, opting to acquit the man.

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Whatever the outcome of the hearings, however, the Supreme Court will never be the same again in the perception of our people. They will already know that its highest official can get away with misdeclaring his assets, of pulling tricks like spiriting away his bank deposits as soon as Congress voted to impeach him, and of getting some of the cleverest trial lawyers in the country to help him. One can only wonder what the payback will be, in case he is acquitted and these lawyers have cases elevated to the high court.

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At least it is a good development that the Senate-court was able to subpoena his peso-bank records, even if only to find out that the amounts had been swiftly withdrawn on the very day Congress impeached him. As for those unreachable dollar deposits, what will you bet that they are also gone from the banks? A single check for the entire amount, passed over to some account in the U.S. would have taken care of that.

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So it looks as if the Chief Justice is always a step ahead of his prosecutors, who have earned our sympathy for being at the wrong end of the stick most of the time, often getting scolded by both defense lawyers and the senator-judges. In the exchanges during the hearing, they are also often stymied by the trial savvy of the wizened defense counsels, but, as also clearly seen, truth is on their side most of the time.

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By the way, a college friend of Chief Justice Renato Corona has advised him to resign to save the branches of government from what he called “structural destruction”. But, as I recall a statement from the Chief Justice in a news item, he is ready to fight to the death in this case. Congressman Sonny Angara of Aurora, seems to have put it down right when he said that “The chief justice may not know ethics, but he knows his law.” And that, his defense counsels do, too.

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Both our sports officials and Foreign Affairs office should not let them get away with this. I refer to the incident in Argentina where our boxer, Jonreil Casimero and his companions were almost lynched by the unsportsmanlike followers of their hometown boy who was beaten decisively by Casimero. It was not even a close fight, as his opponent, Luis Alberto Lazarte, had already been knocked down twice by Casimero in the earlier rounds before finally putting him down on the tenth.

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Before the referee could even announce the winner, hordes of angry watchers climbed into the ring and started pummeling the Filipinos, the coach of Casimero, and even Casimero himself, who had to be spirited off and hidden under the ring to save him. Many were hurt as the primitive boxing fans threw bottles, hit people with chairs and anything they could grab, causing bumps and bruises to the group from the Philippines.

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The worst is that the boxing official of the country, made light of the incident, saying it was just something to laugh about. Maybe that is the way they do their sports? Beat up those who win over them? The official reportedly said it was nothing to complain about, it was ordinary. Our government should not take this lightly, they should take this up with international sports bodies, lest this happens again and again, and athletes who compete with those barbarians get seriously hurt.*

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