Far short of expectations

The impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona has been ongoing for more than three weeks. There is growing doubt among those assiduously following the proceedings whether it will actually be able to ferret out the truth and exact accountability on widely-perceived erring high public officials, i.e. Mr. Corona and ultimately, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Or will the people's stake in the impeachment trial be sidelined by the factional and personal interests of the main characters involved - President “Noynoy” Aquino and CJ Corona/GMA – as these push and pull on the members of the highly politicized Senate impeachment tribunal.

People are definitely interested in knowing the truth and it is to the public interest that the truth comes out. But the odds appear stacked against this happening because of the larger context in which this impeachment trial is unavoidably enmeshed.

Much has been made of the prosecutors' apparent lack of preparation and even competence in marshalling the evidence against Mr. Corona. On the other hand, the defense lawyers, while appearing erudite on the complexities of legal proceedings, are simply resorting to legal technicalities to prevent the presentation of damning evidence against their client.

But there is reasonable ground to believe that the outcome of the trial will not be decided solely on the merits or the strength of the arguments of the defense and the prosecution but on political, economic and even personal interests of the Senator-Judges.

Political alignments are key - whether the senator is an ally of Mr. Aquino or Mr. Corona/Mrs. Arroyo - as well as other compelling considerations such as whether the senator is a reelectionist or eying some other public office, in which case the backing of the incumbent President and/or a high-profile performance that meets with public approbation can make all the difference.

Indeed the Corona impeachment trial by its very nature is imbued with "politics" both in the good and bad sense. Good because this trial in fact is the result of a very just and popular demand that GMA and her cohorts be finally made accountable for all their crimes against the people now that they are out of power.

The trial will be a way in which public opinion can impinge on the process and the outcome. Hopefully, the true people's interest will emerge, and as one veteran public interest lawyer put it, the people can be mobilized as the “great equalizer” in a political process where huge vested interests are clashing.

But so-called public opinion can be manipulated and even manufactured. All the interested parties and the various political and social forces will try to demonstrate that they have the people behind them.

The dominant force of course that has the upper hand in this trial is the Aquino regime, specifically the rabidly pro-Aquino groups dubbed "kamag-anak/kaibigan/kabarilan", and lest we forget, "kapartido".

To be more specific, there are the members of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan (think Hacienda Luisita multi-billion peso interests); the “Balai” group (Mar Roxas/Liberal Party) and “Samar”constellation (Executive Secreatary Ochoa and anti-Balai personalities) are very much alive and kicking; as well as smaller satellite groups like the party-list Akbayan (Political Affairs adviser Llamas, assorted “social-”, “popular-” and ex-”national-democrats” and their hangers on).

The prosecution is in fact controlled by the LP-led alliance in the House of Representatives wherein the progressive party-list Bayan Muna is a minor though persistent and active voice.

The Aquino regime will use this trial to strengthen its hold on the Supreme Court. And in turn use this influence on a slew of cases that it wants to win in the SC like the Hacienda Luisita case, cases involving GMA, and anti-people policies, programs and decisions that are or will be brought before the Court's scrutiny.

It will consolidate itself further by harvesting tremendous political capital from either getting Mr. Corona to resign or have the Senate find him guilty as charged. This way, the anti-corruption slogan that has become Mr. Aquino's main political platform will be validated. Lingering doubts about his political will and capability to prosecute and punish Mrs. Arroyo and her ilk will be – at least temporarily – set aside.

Already, we see how the US-backed Aquino regime is using the trial to draw attention and criticism away from its gross failings with regard to socio-economic policies and programs – the incessant oil price increases are only the tip of the iceberg - and its servile foreign policy.

The current negotiations between the Philippine and US governments regarding the pre-positioning, on a permanent basis, of more US troops and covert personnel, warships, and war materiel inside Philippine territory were shrouded in secrecy until a US newspaper shed light on the matter. But the news is eclipsed by the mass media's preoccupation with the Corona trial.

As for Mr. Corona, he still has the majority of the Supreme Court justices (majority being Arroyo appointees to begin with) and the high court's rank and file on his side. Across the nation, the lower courts and their personnel seem to be loyal to the Chief Justice for the most part but all they can do is manifest their position and not much else.

The leadership of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, an influential and vocal association of lawyers, has also taken Mr. Corona's side. Certain personages like reputed legal luminary Fr. Joaquin Bernas and other opinion makers like some Catholic bishops have rallied round the concern that the impeachment trial is an affront on the judicial system itself and threatens the system of “checks and balance” among the co-equal branches of government.

Arroyo partisans shrilly contend that what is taking place is no less than a Malacanang-orchestrated attack on the Chief Justice, the independence and integrity of the Supreme Court and a vile precursor to more political persecution to be inflicted on their political patron, Arroyo, and the establishment of a n alleged Aquino “dictatorship”.

Unfortunately for Mr. Corona, the fact that the impeachment trial is a perfectly legal and Constitutionally-provided resort of Congress to check malfeasance in the High Court, has tied the hands of the latter from checkmating the impeachment trial with some form of injunction. Several petitions to this effect are pending in the SC and will likely languish there unless some major shift in the balance of forces takes place that will allow the justices to provoke a constitutional crisis by imposing a restraining order on the impeachment trial at this late stage.

In the Senate, the clout of Malacanang is undoubtedly at work with LP members pro-actively working to find Corona guilty. Other Aquino allies like Presiding Justice Senator Enrile, though he would be inclined to go along with Malacanang for varying reasons, will also not allow a bungling prosecution to rule the day especially with defense lawyers who are quick on their legal counter-offensives.

The senators who were or are still allied with Arroyo have to pretend to be fair. Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago herself acknowledged that after the experience of the Estrada impeachment trial - public perception that the Senator-Judges were conspiring to suppress crucial evidence provoked a popular uprising that led to President Estrada's downfall - the current Senate Tribunal must exercise great caution and circumspection that it is not perceived to be doing the same.

Those in the Opposition may still go either way although many of them were former vociferous opponents of Mrs. Arroyo and her “lying, looting and murdering” regime. Many of them also tend to be critical of the Aquino administration though this is tempered by Mr. Aquino's still high popularity ratings. They will be keen on how public opinion is swayed one way or the other and how this translates into their political careers and fortunes.

There is an evident waning of interest in the trial, as shown by the thinning audience in the gallery and notable absence of rallyists outside the Senate. This can either be a wake-up call for the prosecution to shape up, or they can interpret it as the public not caring which way the trial would go, and serve rather as a disincentive for working harder. For the defense, public weariness with the trial is a more conducive environment for an acquittal.

This impeachment trial indeed is the result of factional conflicts among members of the ruling elite but this fact doesn't automatically mean that the progressive forces and the people as a whole don't stand to gain anything from engaging it.
The progressives must call on and mobilize the people to take up their own role in exerting pressure on the prosecution (and even the defense) to do better and the Senator-Judges to act with independence, probity and fairness and most of all, with the commitment to arrive at truth and justice.

The progressives must be unwavering in their principled campaign to bring Arroyo and her ilk to the bar of the people's justice even as they are vigilant in uncovering and opposing the self-serving, reactionary agenda of the Aquino regime. This will require greater political astuteness, closer and more diligent monitoring, and popular calls to action at critical junctures of the entire impeachment trial. #

Published in Business World
3 February 2012