Ledesma: Truth, lies and propaganda

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I ALWAYS hesitated to write about my own perception on the ongoing impeachment trial simply because I do not want to tread on the legal niceties which characterized the trial from the very start. I too have my own prejudices from the very beginning when the lower house railroaded the impeachment proceedings and even rejected a pretrial conference.

All these, I thought, smack of braggadocio of Malacañang-controlled congress. Since, like the rest of you, I was made to understand that the impeachment trial is more of a political process than being legalese, I accepted the ugly reality that whoever controls the political machinery will have its way in this trial.

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Nevertheless I remained glued to the conduct of the trial in and out of the confines of the Senate Hall.

I must confess that at the start I thought that Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona will have it on the jugular with all eight different charges assembled into one that were heaped against him. The prosecution had gone earlier before the court of public opinion going about town appearing and talking on every TV and radio station waving to the audience wads of documents purporting pieces of evidence that would deliver Corona to kingdom come.

I had an initial misgivings about how this trial will finally be concluded when against the claim of the prosecution, respondent Corona had only 23 (to include 4 parking lots) instead of 45 real estate properties which the prosecutors had been propagandizing about. Caught prevaricating, the head of the prosecution panel could only quip, "marami pa rin di ba?"

Later, Niel Tupaz has to defend himself against the information that he too was building a P50-million mansion. His retort was, "That's a lie, the house I am building is only worth P15 million." The key word here is "only". To which I'd say, "malaki pa rin di ba?"

To add confusion to an already convoluted trial, is the fairy tale of Congressman Reynaldo Umali that a "small lady" handed him a brown envelope containing Corona's bank documents which would prove unexplained wealth of the respondent, his failure to reflect his true income in his tax returns.

As if that was not enough, Congressman Jorge Banal also came out with his own story that somebody sneaked into the gated subdivision where he resides and stuck the same documents in the gate of his house.

In both occasions the CCTV cameras failed to catch the "small lady" and the "messenger" which I presumed must all be figment of the fertile imagination of the congressmen.

And now comes the information that the pieces of evidence presented by the prosecution are after all fake documents.

If the senator-judges just keep their mouth shut and leave the prosecution to the congressmen-prosecutors this trial could have ended before it is allowed to last the third week.

But it is good for our education: that the prosecutors are too incompetent beyond their expertise as propagandists, and that our senators are truly a class of their own except for a few exceptions.

The legal luminaries among them surface led by Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Joker Arroyo and Frank Drillon. Sen. Koko Pimentel talks less but talks sense while it should have been better if Pia just let her brother Allan do the arguing instead of she trying hard to impress us about her knowledge of US statutes.

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, although not a lawyer, came out with probing questions and I'm impressed. Sen. Jess Lapid provides comic relief without even trying. Bongbong, a non-lawyer, is cautious but sharp so too is Serge Osmena.

At this stage of the trial, the defense has yet to present their own evidence although interestingly, nearly every piece of evidence presented by the prosecution was also marked by them as their own. Strange, I may say, but I suspect that Defense lawyer Serafin Cuevas is up to something the prosecutors wouldn't like. But then, the prosecutors do not only have some helping from some senator judges they too are getting a lot of boost from the free-wheeling lambaste courtesy of President Noy.

It's fun in the Philippines even in the impeachment court!