Purgation

The seesaw in the scores of the prosecution and defense in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona has the nation guessing as to where this trial would be going and how it would end.

If the Chief Justice is impeached and he has to leave the Supreme Court, it would be a triumph for President Aquino who, despite denials, is perceived to be behind this impeachment for his own interest.

On the other hand, if Corona wins because the Senate is unable to secure the needed ¾ votes to impeach, this trial will be a great loss to Aquino. He will lose public esteem and his popular support would certainly collapse.

This is the reason why Aquino is using every power he has to get Corona impeached. Even the senators who are his political allies, like Senator Franklin Drilon and Francis Pangilinan, are already showing their partiality when the prosecution foundered under legal barrage of the defense. This only shows the great fear among Aquino’s allies that they have no qualms about violating the oath they made as judges in the impeachment court, to be impartial as judges ought to be.

This partiality early in this game is already corroding the credibility of these judges so that whatever they do will always be construed as pure politicking.

While, indeed, the impeachment trial is a political process , the people will not go for a kangaroo court and even if the Aquino faction wins that will be a Pyrrhic victory.

Add the revelation of the real intent of Aquino in getting rid of Corona and the government is mixing a poisonous brew that people will not tolerate.

On the table of the Supreme Court is the motion for reconsideration in the court’s decision to distribute to the agrarian reform beneficiaries the lands of Hacienda Luisita that is owned by the Aquinos. Corona claims that the reason for his impeachment is that the Supreme Court has ruled, after so many years of delay, that the distribution should be implemented.

The impeachment thus takes on a selfish interest perspective. It is no longer seen as a process for the reform of the judicial system by weeding out Corona. The Aquino government and his allies are laying the foundation for this perception that can grow into reality and national disgust. The political backlash can be dangerous. At the onset the Aquino government is digging its own grave.

Whether the Senate impeaches Corona or not, the nation is already benefited. There are many reports from lawyers themselves that corruption is alive from the Supreme Court down to the lowest Municipal court. Corruption makes a mockery of justice.

Their “honors” are hardly perceived as honorable. The judges and justices know this and the good ones are working to rid the judiciary of the unfit, but the purgation cannot come easy and fast. Impeaching the Chief Justice is a major breakthrough in purging the judiciary of scalawags, the men and women that former President Erap Estrada labeled as “crooks in robes.” It is difficult to dispute this description. We know but we keep silent especially when it involves the Supreme Court because, well, they are supreme, and lawyers and lay people, victims of injustice have no recourse but to Divine Justice.

Thus, many believe that this impeachment is a process of Divine Justice with the hope that, whether Corona is impeached or not, it will start the process of reform, of purgation from within.

The problem of President Aquino is that in the event Corona is impeached, he has the constitutional duty to appoint, what will prevent people from dubbing the new Chief Justice as the Aquino stooge? Corona’s original sin is that he was a Gloria Arroyo appointee so that no matter how wise and right the decision of the court is, if it involves Arroyo, the decision is considered biased.

Aquino laid down the premise of this thinking so that in case the Aquino appointed Chief Justice, although the decision is collegial as in the case of Corona’s court, issues a decision that is favorable to Aquino, can that decision be not considered paying back?

Let us take a specific situation. The motion for reconsideration on the Hda Luisita case can go either way. What If the Court upholds its decision? Will not Aquino charged them also for favoring Arroyo?

What if they decide to reverse their decision? Will they not be perceived to have been intimidated or coerced to decide on Aquino’s way lest they too would be impeached? The SALN, for one, portends of danger to those who oppose Aquino.

The impeachment is a good sign and we hope that it will have a sobering impact on our justices and judges and that the process will be a true purgation of the toxins in our judicial system.*

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