i heard it first last night, from one of lynda jumilla‘s guests, either dean raul pangalangan or dean tony la vina, on anc‘s daily post-mortem: the fear or apprehension that the public might be losing interest in the impeachment case, given all the arguments over technicalities that the prosecution keeps stumbling into.  patriciomangubat too thinks it’s a problem.  read Anti-Corona losing steam:

The problem really is, the public’s waning interest about the case. The trial has been, what, on its fourth week, and since the prosecution has failed to present their most explosive witness yet, this is beginning to turn into a dragging courtroom drama which is interesting only to those who love reading John Grisham or watching mock courts.

i beg to disagree.  i think the only people who want the trial to end ASAP are the ones feeling threatened by so much information getting out about how rich people deal with the BIR and SEC, and how they manage not to declare the real value of their real estate properties, that is, the ways of the rich with their millions, in and out of government, kumbaga.

i think people are watching, listening, every chance they get, not necessarily to all of the trial itself but there are too the endless commentaries and speculation on radio and tv and in the papers and the internet.  one way or another people are keeping tabs on this double-program telenovela unfolding live! on two fronts : in the courtoom and in the public mind.

in the public mind, thanks to pro-palace media, guilty na si corona.  but in the courtroom, the prosecution is fumbling, floundering, failing to build their case (they were more prepared for a corona resignation, methinks, than to prosecute him in a real trial).  and the people are enjoying the show.  suddenly it could go any which way.  where no one would have bet on an acquittal ten days ago, today, a conviction is not in the bag at all, and people want to see every twist and turn of the story, no matter how long it takes for due process to take its course.

tama si dean la vina: the prosecution’s problem is not how to win the public — they have already been won — but how to win the senators.  presiding officer senate president enrile and most of the senator-judges have been doing such a good job, behaving in a way that has won the public’s approval, to such an extent that the public, it would seem, would accept whatever verdict the senate hands down.  which is good.

in fact, if there’s anything we should all be praying and pleading for, it is that the senators truly take the high ground and stand tall to the end against any importunings by the palace to sway their final decision.  for a change.

here’s to interesting times.