Category: senate

presidential backing #cj trial

day 24.  the prosecution’s request that the court subpoena justice ma. lourdes sereno to testify on her dissenting opinion (re the TRO on de lima’s watchlist order) was denied by presiding judge enrile.  senator judge trillanes also withdrew his request of day 23 that justice sereno be sent questions to be answered in writing.  on grounds that it would violate the doctrine of judicial privilege.

prosecutor colmenares pleaded that the feb 14 judicial privilege resolution, effectively forbidding members to testify against each other, was making it difficult for them to get witnesses, and that it might take a subpoena to make justice sereno appear in court.  or something to that effect.

enrile suggested that the prosecution try inviting the justice muna, because what if the senate issued a subpoena and sereno did not comply, then malaking kahihiyan para sa senate court.  and then what?  cite her for contempt?  it would mean a major major clash with a co-equal branch of govt that has the power to declare the senate impeachment court unconstitutional.  or something like that.

senator judge joker arroyo, for his part, expressed amazement at the prosecutor’s statement re difficulty of getting witnesses from the supreme court just because the respondent is the chief justice himself.

“But you have the backing of no less than the President of the Philippines! You should have no problem getting witnesses!”

true.  napa-tweet tuloy ako na medyo uncreative yata ang presidential backing for the prosecution.  kung sa West Wing yan, nagapang na ng palasyo ang mga anti-corona sa supreme court at meron nang nag-surprise witness sa senate court.  kumbaga, ala enrile and ramos nuong EDSA.

or maybe the palace has tried, pero talagang mas matindi lang ang firewall ng supreme court kaysa ng banking system?

as for the abs-cbn cameraman on the justice beat who took videos of sc spokesman midas marquez and of the lawyer topacio & cash, i hope it’s not true that he doesn’t understand what he was covering, not the TRO, not the cash bond, etc.  i hope he was only advised to pretend that he doesn’t understand what’s going on to save him from being grilled by the defense.  otherwise, medyo nakakadismaya for someone who has worked more than a decade in the country’s largest media network.

senators betraying public trust #cj trial

day 15, what a disaster.  i had hoped that if corona were to be impeached, it would happen fairly and squarely, and for a while there i thought the senate was doing a great job, even if it was rather lenient with the bumbling prosecution, even allowing themselves to directly question the witnesses and help make the case.  public’s right to know and all that, up to a point.  but today it was too much.

it’s as though the release of some bank records, illegally obtained at that, have brought out the predator in certain senator-jurors who must be smelling blood and are salivating for more — the dollar accounts, in particular, kasi daw, it would set a bad example for crooks in government who might put their unexplained wealth in dollar accounts, too, now that they know that dollar accounts are sacrosanct.  oh please.  as if naman people who have surplus funds don’t know that already.  and cayetano himself says, it’s a law that can be amended.  then amend it later, i say, than break the law now — enough rules and laws of court are being broken — just to satisfy their bloodlust.

it’s offensive the way these senator-jurors are suddenly behaving as though they were lily white when it comes to undeclared/doctored incomes and real estate property valuations in their SALNs and ITRs, and as if they had no dollar accounts themselves.  come on, sirs, don’t take us all for dolts naman.  and stop using “the people” as an excuse.  i daresay that the way things are going, the people would accept a decision along the lines of: okay, noted, enough-is-enough, move on.  after all there are 7 more articles to go.  or can it be that the 7 other articles are duds?  it’s the bank records or nothing?  bank records that the 188 reps + farinas didn’t even know about when they impeached the chief justice?  wow.  farinas could be right, they’re all in this together.  what a betrayal of public trust.

 

“anonymous source” #cj trial

what goes on kaya behind the closed doors of a senate caucus, especially the one today yesterday where they “refined” the decision to compel bank officials to bring and testify on corona’s bank accounts, with the caveat of course that this is an exception, bank secrecy laws hold.  of course. they also have to be protecting their own interests — they have SALNs and BIR records, plenty properties and huge bank accounts too — but with the second-envelop fiasco on everybody’s mind, they are bending over backward and allowing the prosecution to subpoena practically any and all documents desired, never mind defense objections, para hindi sabihin ng taongbayan na kumakampi sila kay corona at meron silang itinatago o ipinapatago.  a boon to the prosecution.

it’s a highwire act for the senators, keeping a balance, keeping the people out of the streets.  yesterday was tense.  would the senate order that corona’s bank records be subpoenaed or not.  but it was like the decision had been taken out of their hands.  media was already feasting on the juicy details of alleged dollar accounts based on documents provided  the prosecution by an  “anonymous source”.  the senate could not have said no, never mind that that anonymous source is an illegal source.  probably a concerned citizen, said the prosecution lawyer who received the documents.

i wonder about this concerned citizen.  did she act independently?  motivated only by personal anti-corona sentiments?  or did she act upon instructions from someone powerful who’s pulling strings behind-the-scenes?  sana she acted independently.  because if she didn’t, then that’s bad news.  worse even, we’ll probably never know.

corona’s bank records #cj trial

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