Tipping points

“Point of no return”. That's how defense lawyers tag Chief Justice Renato Corona's decision, on Day 36 of his impeachment trial, to appear before the court. Senator-judge Francis “Chiz” Escudero says it's a ‘make or break move”.

Others prefer the classic “tipping point.” Malcolm Gladwell titled his bestselling book (Little Brown / 2000) that way..Ideas to behavior “spread like viruses do” and shove institutions to the brink, Gladwell wrote. A “moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point” is reached.

“The defense ( won't ) skirt this issue,” counsel Jose Roy III announced Tuesday. If the court is inclined to make the chief justice's testimony, specially on padlocked dollar accounts, “form part of ( for the ) verdict rendered here,” why sure --- Corona would oblige.

Then, why didn't the Capo say so on Day 1? Instead, the defense panel shilly-shallyed., over seven grueling weeks, whether Corona would testify.

Two days earlier, Roy and colleagues declared at a high-profile Country Club press conference: our man will go to the Senate. Court rules were skewed “As defense counsel, I cannot, in good faith…leave him unprotected on the witness stand,” Roy stressed.

“A man does not live by words alone, although sometimes he must eat them,” the late Ambassador Adlai Stevenson once cracked. Court rules haven't changed So what triggered this 180-degree turn?

“Little things can make a big difference”., says “The Tipping Point” Picayune things like stalled legislation. Trial court expenses ballooned. And Senator Miriam Santiago's blood pressure roller-coastered.

The defense trotted out, 18 witnesses... Quezon City Sheriff Jose Bisnar evoked the legend of Robin Hood and the less-than-exemplary Sheriff of Nottingham

” You did not check values or urged Carla Corona Carpio to increase her bid of P28,000 for 4,839 Basa Guidote shares” to satisfy other court approved claims?”, asked an incredulous Senate President Enrile. “No sir, ”Bisnar replied. It took him nine years to even file a report on the sale. .

BGEI property, paid for by sole bidder Carla Corona-Castillo, fetched P34.7 million in a Manila City sale, former mayor Lito Atienza testified.. Isn't that an over 1,239 windfall profit? Eat your hearts out, Investment tycoons Manuel Pangilinan of Meralco and PLDT and Ramon Ang of San Miguel.

Drip-drip-drip requests, by one senator-judge after another, that Corona quit ducking behind technical objections, ratcheted pressure. . Defense counsel Serafin Cuevas lobbed legal spanners, explaining in case you forgot : “We taught law for 30 years”.

“We're happy you are now cooperating,” an often testy Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told Corona 's lawyers. “We may ask ( Corona ) to tell the bank to release his foreign currency bank accounts.

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel crafted another “tipping point”. He yanked back support for a Senate decision to comply with a Feb 9 Supreme Court “temporary restraining order” to bolt Corona 's dollar accounts. He had hoped Senate statesmanship would be reciprocated by judic

ial wisdom. Those hopes were dashed”. The Court has not decided on the TRO.. Will it rule after Senate adjourns on June 7?

“I vote to enforce our order for PSBank and others to divulge …all foreign accounts of the chief justice,.” Pimentel declared. His shift will whittle down the original 13-10 vote to a razor thin 12-11.

Is “temporary” for this Court six months? Maybe one year? Or two? .Or is temporary perpetual? Will Corona dollar account TRO wither into “moot and academic” status when trial ends May 30.

“I will obey the Senate,” said Ombudsman Conchita Carprio Morales, sub-poenaed to appear Monday. She'd answer questions, including those on her order to Corona : Explain within 72 hours, charges of stashing $10-million.

No, interjected Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marquez.. Suppose some one “questioned Morales order before the SC on the ground of grave abuse of discretion?”, Midas asked. The high court may “rule on legality of the Ombudsman's order.

“Is Midas speculating?,” Inquirer asked. “Or is he soliciting?”

Spokespersons are not hawkers who peddle wares in red light districts. They're are supposed to work by a fine tuned sense of delicadeza. That'd rule out trolling for petitioners Harry Roque of UP Law Center meanwhile. skewered Midas “blatantly blurring” his role as Court spokesman with that of Corona apologist

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales' track record shows a jurist who does not suffer fools gladly. Recall her dissent from majority of justices who approved Corona's midnight appointment as chief justice: It was jerry-rigged “on drafting trivialities that has the weight of helium”

She acted on the pro-forma waiver that Corona, like other filers of SALNs , signed It authorized the Ombudsman to look into all his financial records in connection with SALN. Now, the impeachment court asked a constitutionally independent Ombudsman to share it's findings.

Our take is Caprio-Morales won't be silenced.. She'll display the “burnished steel” of previous decisions, as in ancestral domain case involving the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“Who shall find a valiant woman?,” asks the Book of Proverbs. “Far and from the uttermost coasts is the price of her.”*

(Email: juan_mercado77@yahoo.com )

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