MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/20 May) – My hunch could be wrong, but I am having doubts Chief Justice Renato Corona will testify on Tuesday (May 22) at the impeachment trial as assured by his lawyers.
Corona’s decision will depend on how his defense team’s appraisal of the impact of the testimony of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales on his dollar accounts. Given the damning information that Carpio-Morales had revealed, I’m pretty sure lead defense counsel Justice Serafin Cuevas is now hesitant to put his client on the hot seat.
Cuevas and his team realized rather belatedly that the Ombudsman’s testimony has only sunk the Chief Justice deeper in the mess he’s in.
They tried to save the day by arguing that her testimony as a “hostile witness” was not binding on Corona. But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile pointed that parties are bound by the testimonies of their witnesses, including “hostile” ones.
To recall, the defense had announced Corona would answer on the $10-million allegation if the Senate subpoenaed Carpio-Morales and the complainants to testify under oath.
Lawyers who have followed the proceedings at the impeachment court have wondered why the defense gambled on calling the Ombudsman to testify, citing that as a rule, a witness is presented to either prove or contradict allegations. Besides, the observers added, the defense did not know what Carpio-Morales had up her sleeve.
Cuevas and company forgot that alleged illegal wealth, the complaint being investigated by the Ombudsman, is not among the articles of impeachment being heard by the Senate. But by presenting Carpio-Morales, they had only buttressed the prosecution’s claims that the Chief Justice had lied in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).
Corona’s spokespersons tried to do some damage control by saying that he only had three dollar accounts, not 82 accounts as testified by the Ombudsman based on the report he obtained from the Anti-Money Laundering Council. That was a lousy performance. The substance of the accusation is not the amount nor the number of accounts but the non-disclosure of these assets. It could just be a million, or maybe less, but that doesn’t hide the fact that the SALNs did not bare all his assets (no pun intended).
The real problem is how Corona would parley questions from the senator-judges. He and his lawyers know they cannot object to their questions, and I mean any question which may not even be directly related to the issue of non-disclosure of some assets.
Moreover, the Senate and the public still remember that he has promised to bare all his accounts. His credibility is now tied to whether he will keep his word or backtrack by invoking the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court on the disclosure of his dollar accounts. He is facing not just a dilemma but real – and I mean real – trouble. His problem is no longer just legal and technical.
Ironic that Corona’s defense lawyers, who are among the best in the land, had bungled at crunch time. In basketball, what they did was like shooting the ball in the opponent’s ring. At least, they were being generous to the prosecution.
So, will Corona testify on Tuesday as promised by his lawyers? Don’t give me that look. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno writes mainly on the environment, human rights and politics. He can be reached at hmcmordeno@gmail.com)