Corona’s Trialserye culminated by Walkout

Many people have waited for the much awaited presentation of Chief Justice Corona in the witness stand. But not all of us have anticipated the drama that will unfold in today’s trial. He started out with reading of his opening statement to which became rebuttal of all the accusations against him. It seemed that the opening statement became the defense’s direct examination in narrative form. It may have gave the lead defense counsel Ret. Justice Serafin Cuevas the rest that he needs because the floor was left to his client who kept on talking (with some interruptions during his crying moments) for 3 hours denying all that the prosecution have presented. He even matched the Ombudman’s “Lantern of Lies” powerpoint presentation with his “Pie of Truth” (thanks to Sir Loi Landicho for the phrase) powerpoint version.

But after that long testimony of declaring clear conscience and litany of truths on his part, the climax came when after challenging the 188 complainants of the impeachment and Sen. Drilon to sign the same bank waiver that he signed, he just walked-out of the impeachment court without being officially discharged by the presiding judge.

That immediately caught the ire of Sen. Enrile who felt disrespected by the Chief Magistrate. I felt sad and angry for JPE, that after the respect and courtesy he and the impeachment court accorded to Corona, he will just walk-out of the room without proper notification.

During the course of his litany of truths, I am starting to have compassion of him as he and his family are being drowned to such public humiliation and character assassination. That indeed he really is a man of good character and that he really has nothing to hide and be convicted of. But with that actuation after he ends his speech, it convinced me that all of this are drama. He was not there to show the truth but to draw sympathy so as the public will rally for him. He didn’t sat on the witness stand to prove the falsity of the testimonies and evidences against him but just to narrate that what he said is the truth. There may have been shining moment when he showed and signed in front of the public via the nationwide live television the waiver to open his accounts but to our dismay it has conditions. How can you one trust your sincerity in doing something if there are conditions attached to it. It’s like saying “Ok I will say sorry but you have to say sorry to me first before I do”. Where on earth is the sincerity in such an action?

Instead of clearing his name with all those statements he said on the witness stand, I can’t help but be more doubtful of his intentions. Did he took the witness stand just to lash out on his detractors? Does he have any intentions to be cross-examined or he just want to take the moment to voice out all his sentiments which is not new to the public? If Corona is really confident that he has done nothing wrong, why the walk-out?

Yes, I know that his legal team has already said that it was not an intentional walk out but it concerns his health because he suffered hypoglycemia right after his speech. But what a coincidence that is. There are several instances that his speech was halted because of his seemingly breaking into tears, why didn’t he called the attention of the court if he’s in pain already?

With what happened today, I think Corona added more burden on his shoulders to clearly explain his innocence. With the cross-examination schedule tomorrow, I will still hear his side but his explanation should be so convincing, because the drama and theatrics that unfolded in today’s trial is not easy to be disregarded.

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“It’s not the words that count, sometimes actions are more revealing than what you have spoken”

Corona to sit at the Witness Stand

The much awaited part of the Corona Trial will now come to realization as the Chief Justice’s lawyer confirmed that he will be testifying in the ongoing impeachment trial. Defense lawyer Atty. Jose Roy said they will present Chief Justice Renato Corona as their witness in the condition that several hostile witnesses, including Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales will also be presented in relation to Corona’s alleged million dollar bank deposits.

This is a welcome development in the seemingly lame presentation of the defense panel in the ongoing impeachment of the chief magistrate. In the several weeks that they’ve presented witnesses in defense to the accusations of the prosecution, there have been no solid arguments that will debunk his improper disclosure of his Statement of Assets, Liabities and Net Worth (SALN). It is very evident that the Senator Judges are getting impatient with the “peripherals” and “immaterial” witnesses being presented on the witness stand.

Now that the accused himself will testify, it will be a great chance for the defense to answer all the accusations, because there’s no more credible defense witness but the accused himself. Since the case is all about the CJ’s SALN there will be no more perfect person to answer about its discrepancies but he himself. Should they’ve presented him earlier, I think the trial will be on its final part now.

I don’t want to insinuate but I think the defense is loosing cards at this point and they can no longer find any valid and clear defense with regards to the Article 2 so they don’t have any choice but to present the Chief Justice. But I think it’s a good tactic to have him testify because he has the direct knowledge of it. If he will be able to explain anything about his SALN and its discrepancies and it will be that convincing, that will definitely sway the tempo of the trial. I just hope that indeed he has that bullet to fire-out all those accusations leveled against him, because as of now his defense wasn’t able to totally counter the charges being laid by the prosecution panel.

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“There is no better defense than the main accuse personally defending himself”

Day 34 : Atienza, Cuevas and Trial Recess (Corona Impeachment Trial)

After 34 days of the trial the Impeachment Court finished today their last day before going to the Lenten break. The session was adjourned passed 6pm this afternoon and will resume trial on May 7, 2012.

But before the trial adjourned 2 witnesses were able to be presented by the defense panel. First to be presented was Miriam Mosuela of the John Hay Management Corporation (JHMC). Prosecution at the onset opposed the offer of her testimony, citing its relevance to the case at hand, but the court admitted. She then testified on the benefits, salaries and compensation Mrs. Cristina Corona earned during her tenure at JHMC.

After her, the prosecution then called on former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza to the witness stand. He testified with regards to the sales of the property owned by the Basa-Guidote Enterprise which is a family business by the Chief Justice’s wife Cristina.

On his testimony he told the court that the property bought by the city government was owned by BGEI and was sold through it’s authorized representative Mrs. Corona. During the direct examination he stated that a cheque of 34.703 million pesos was paid to Mrs. Corona in trust of the Basa-Guidote Enterprise.

The prosecution meanwhile, during its cross examination tried to test the credibility of the witness. They’ve tried to dig-in whether the sale has no indication of some special favors. They’ve also tried to show that there is some degree of lack of due diligence because the owner of the property was the BGEI but the cheque was named to Mrs. Corona and not the corporation.

Thereafter some senator-judges also inquired on the witness Atienza to ask some clarificatory questions. But the one that created the spotlight was Sen. Recto, who in his line of questioning made lead defense counsel, former Justice Serafin Cuevas quite irate. Cuevas even seemingly went into an offensive tirade to Recto saying his remarks was unfair saying they are yet to present evidence on the matter being raised by the senator. Before the conversation becomes more heated presiding judge Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile immediately interrupted Cuevas and said that Recto was just clarifying on the matter being testified already by the witness Atienza.

At the end Cuevas just apologized for his quite over reaction to Recto’s statement and then it was followed by the senate adjournment.

Day 9 of still UNPREPARED and MIS-MANAGED prosecution (Corona Impeachment Trial)

After more than 2 weeks of the trial, the prosecution still cannot seem to get their acts together. Evident by the mis-management of handling their direct examination to their own witness during today’s trial.  Presiding Judge Senate President Enrile and defense lead counsel Serafin Cuevas seemed lecturing the prosecution counsel on how to conduct direct examination to his witness because it seemed the prosecutor is impeaching their own.

Seating in the witness stand that day was MegaWorld Senior Vice President for Marketing and Sales Noli Hernandez who seemingly transformed as a witness of the defense instead of the prosecution by the way he was asked. Several times that the counsel of the prosecution Atty. Joemar Perez was cautioned by the presiding judge because he’s gearing towards cross examining his witness instead of direct examination. To which found out later that they were not able to confer with Mr. Hernandez before he was presented. During his testimony Hernandez said that the 40% “Corona Discount” on the Bellagio condo unit was brought by the damage in the unit caused by a typhoon and not through any favor.

The trial adjourned it’s day 9 with only 1 witness being presented but noted also during that day is Sen. Villar who as a real state businessman stood and explained that indeed discounts can be possibly given to a buyer due to economic or any undue circumstances. The day also took long time with clarifications and questions from the Senator-Jurors who can’t seem to hide their irate on some topics which kept on repeating.

I hope prosecution will level up their strategy and be more diligent in acquiring and handling their witnesses and evidences because they might loose a good case just because they’re “too lazy” to study the case at hand.