Tuesday glimpse?

Will we all get a glimpse Tuesday into what makes the embattled Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona tick?

Corona is swamped by a blistering Anti-Money Laundering Council report and leaky Statement of Assets and Liabilities. For all that, his supporters insist Corona is “clean and fit to be chief magistrate”.

The midnight appointee may not be in the league of Justices Jose Abad Santos and Celicia Munoz Palma, they admit in more candid moments..

As 5th Supreme Court chief justice, Abad Santos had been left as caretaker when President Manuel Quezon and Cabinet were evacuated in World War II. He refused to cooperate with the Japanese occupiers. On May 2, 1942, he was executed in Lanao del Sur.

“Do not cry, Pepito, show to these people that you are brave,” he told his son Jose Jr. It is an honor to die for one's country. Not everybody has that chance.”

Cecilia Muñoz-Palma (1913 — 2006) was first woman Supreme Court justice. . Tiene cojones was the irreverent accolade paid to her “She has balls.”

She assailed the New Society dictatorship in various decisions.."A referendum under martial rule can be of no far-reaching significance as it is accomplished under an atmosphere or climate of fear”, she wrote in 1975. . She voted against allowing Marcos the right to propose amendments to the Constitution by himself. She later led the 1986 Commission to draft the new Constitution.

Critics say Corona is a compulsive bank account ( 82 at last count ) collector. So were Ferdinand Marcos, Joseph Estrada, Augusto Pinocher and Idi Amin before him.

Corona agreed to testify on Tuesday at the impeachment trial. He vowed to disprove the charge of P677 million in unexplained wealth and a P36.7 million “discrepancy” between what he earned and what his SALNs assert ? Did all greenbucks cascade from then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo? asked Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares.

“This trial can not be quarantined from the environment in which it operates,” cautioned Dr. Perla Melba Maggay of the Institute for Studies in Church and Culture. Legal technicalities take precedence against all other considerations --- in the name of law. This often sidelines main issues at hand.

The legal system is “stacked up against any and all attempts at prying the truth”. “Bank secrecy laws increasingly look like a hedge,” she wrote in a paper titled: “Discerning Truth Claims.” They buck “pressure for transparency” thus sources that aided the prosecution often resorted to anonymity.

“Like people power, it is an indication of our people’s desperate longing to seek redress when the system proves impervious to pleas for simple justice. It is the faceless citizen’s assertion of the right to seek a final remedy for abuse of power by those beyond the usual pale of existing laws.”

. Complicating the task “is the constant static” emanating from the realities of our people’s culture. “There is the memory of the dictatorship held up as a specter by the chief justice,” Maggay points out. “It is seconded by the shallow rhetoric of faces associated with the Marcos and Arroyo regimes (Their) human rights record has been horrific.”.

“By an ironic twist in our quirky politics, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., scion of the strong man, and Miriam Defensor Santiago, erstwhile staunch ally of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, make solemn noises about their fears of the ‘unbridled powers’ of the Ombudsman.”

The impeachment court has been punctilious about safeguarding the over-protected ‘rights’ of the Chief Justice…. On occasion, it liberalized on rulings.. But on some critical issues, the impeachment court has shown a certain obtuseness, a reflex of lawyering.”….

It deferred to the Supreme Court when Philippine Savings Bank sought a temporary restraining order on disclosure of Corona’s dollar deposits. The impeachment court shrank back from a subpoena for appearance of Justice Lourdes Sereno.

“This misplaced deference…, implicitly surrendered its Constitutionally-vested supremacy and right to non-interference in its proceedings.”

Cultural factors impinge on truth seeking. Under the rubric of Kamag-anak Inc., it is presumed that Corona properties are “seamlessly communal”. The patriarch has control over them whether registered in the name of Renato Corona or any of his progeny

The President’s immense powers are brought to bear. Articles of Impeachment were rushed. “This is standard practice of those in power, especially of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who had perfected the art of wielding the stick by dangling a carrot or withholding it.

“Media, has become the gatekeeper of public space” It is aided by social networking sites, “promoter and arbiter of public opinion. This power is implicitly acknowledged by protagonists on both sides. They “shout from electronic housetops what they have yet to cogently argue within the formal rules of the court”.

Over the weekend, the defense panel has had time to armor-plate their man with yet more technicalities that kept the truth at bay so far, as Perla Melba Maggay lucidly argues... That would be a fatal misreading of what ordinary citizens expect of the chief justice when, after seven weeks of dodging, he finally takes the witness stand. People have had enough of bean-counting, whether it be glitzy condos or family inheritance.

Corona knows the odds are stacked against him.. His midnight appointment, by gutting a constitutional ban, are unseen but real shackles. After Tuesday, he will still face the question that Thomas More asked of Richard Rich, the man who betrayed him to govern an English province:

“Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?*

( Email: juan_mercado77@yahoo.com )

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