Underhanded tactics

I have no sympathy for Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona. I just could not close my eyes to how the administration has used underhanded tactics to either force him to quit or undercut his stand before the Senate Impeachment Court.

And the volume of these smear campaigns have reached a crescendo just before the Holy Week so that, instead of reflecting on our sins and mistakes, we tend to find ourselves drawn into the vortex of lies and malicious mischief.

So, instead of meditating on our own failures and repenting for them, we may be tempted to spend our time giving credence to all the half-truths and gossip that have been thrown against Corona.

Not that he is not above suspicion. But the question is that the three-point complaint has been reduced from the original eight which the prosecution had originally submitted to the Senate for trial.

Since day one of the impeachment trial, I have noticed that the administration and the prosecution have used media and other cooperative establishments for a cleverly-done demolition job against Corona, going even beyond the halls of the Senate Impeachment Court.

And lately, Pulse Asia had joined the fray by releasing its survey results in favor of the administration and against Corona. The administration had cleverly used to browbeat Corona and the defense, indicating that opinion is heavily loaded against the Chief Justice. On the latest COA ruling against the P34.7-million purchase price of the Guidote property in Manila 11 years later, while they excused the auditor’s lapse, COA contended its finding still remain valid.

And, yes the latest was a blogger’s report about the properties Corona reportedly owns in Tampa, Florida of the USA. Unfortunately, the reporter is not a journalist. She just is just that – a blogger masquerading as a journalist because she is reportedly connected with a Japanese periodical.

And, yet, despite efforts to tag the property as owned by Corona and his wife, Cristine, the blogger also admitted that it was bought by a daughter of the Chief Justice and worse, she is a practicing successful physician in Florida and the purchase was made at the time when the mortgages on real estate properties in the US virtually gone to basement level.

First, that property belonging to Corona’s daughter, who is married to another professional, is not the subject of the Senate inquiry. In short, the story was intended to tag Corona as the one behind it and his daughter as a dummy.

But the unkindest cut was the BIR summons to Rep. Manny Pacquio to explain reported earnings in his fights abroad, and the taxes due on his endorsement of various products. And the poor fellow, early enough, found himself deprived of additional earnings when the products cancelled Manny’s endorsement because of the BIR move against him.

Unfortunately, Pacquio is living up to his fame as a fighter. And he vows to fight and to charge the BIR officials of Saranggani Province for subjecting him to humiliating experience of having to be called to the office and to explain his side and threatened with contempt because, when his lawyers went to the office, the BIR official was out.

Now, can you beat that?

Frankly, I had forgotten that Pacquiao was one of the members of the Lower Chamber, who refused to endorse the articles of impeachment against Corona. As already declared by one of the rebellious congressmen, the answer was simple – they had not been given a copy of the articles for their perusal before endorsing the complaints of impeachment to the Senate.

And, for that, Pacquiao now gets it on the neck.

Now, the BIR may find itself on the defensive with Manny raring to fight to the finish.

It should have long been known to the local BIR officials that earnings in the US cannot escape watchful eyes of the US Internal Revenue Service. In short, it would have been very easy for them to have asked for the tax payments of Pacquiao abroad.

Instead, the BIR is asking Manny to explain his tax payments abroad and the local taxes. You don’t escape the eagle eye of the US IRS. So with endorsements. The taxes are paid with alacrity. And so also with the local taxes which are paid by multinational firms which normally do not try to hide such taxes form view.

Well, anyway, the damage has been done. And most of these are irreparable. I just hope that the series of harassments and persecutions against the perceived opponents of the administration finally reach the end of the rope and fight back as mighty as Manny.

But the question is: When are they going to start examining their conscience and undo the damage that they had done to so many persons? I’m not saying that Corona is to be acquitted. Only that the sense of fair play and justice be adhered to insofar as the Senate trial is going on.

I hope that the Holy Week will touch the hearts of the administration’s brains so they can change their justice by going after the corrupt and the untouchables. God provided that all of us are given the time to change and convert. Otherwise, we lower the boot over our own selves. It is not God who punishes us. He simply allows the misdeeds that we do to punish us.*

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