Corona worst witness against himself

Chief Justice Renato Corona, as aptly described in an Editorial, turned out to be the worst witness against himself.

As a lawyer, I expected much more from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The “Chief”, after all, is ‘primus inter pares’ – first among equals, in the Philippine Supreme Court, the so-called court of last resort. But his brazen attempt at hoodwinking all of us into believing his incredible tale was a big letdown.  Which brings me to the main plot of this sordid affair — GMA’s grand plan to litter the Philippine judicial system with people who although glaringly unqualified for the lofty positions they were entrusted with, were rabid loyalists who will keep her out of jail!

I am not an apologist of this Administration — never was, and never will be. I join the chorus in decrying how the much-abused but ever-dependable weapon of the executive branch, called the ‘pork-barrel’, was once-again foisted to command the Honorable Members of Congress, which way to go. And so, mediocre as it was, the Articles of Impeachment filed against CJ Corona became the shaky symbol of the Filipino people’s collective hope for accountability and transparency in the highest echelons of Government officialdom.

While I volunteered, like tens of other well-meaning lawyers, to help the Prosecution in whatever way we can, I am not unmindful of how the Public Prosecutors also faced their own problem of credibility. In the end, it was not really the brilliance of the Prosecutors nor the sharpness of the pleadings that won Corona’s conviction but the humongous mountain of dirt that the former SC Chief Justice diligently piled away in his 20 years of Government service.

The mountain, at the most opportune time, just caved in for every one to see.

Related stories

8 lessons from the Corona impeachment trial (www.rappler.com)

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