Everyone is gearing up for the battle that they are to face come 2012.
The Impeachment Trial!
When you hear people going into battle, what do you think of?
We begin to imagine people forming two groups each opposite of another with weapons in their hands. The officers used gunfire as warning shots preparing the way for troops to march towards their destination. The band is playing in the process. Then the officers gave their commands and the two armies raced towards each other as they sing the battle cries.
For the younger generation, we would see a fight between two groups of powerful beings or creatures with superpowers and high ideals, adorned with fancy costumes or outfits. Each member equipped with ultra-human will and strength, out-of-this-world powers and abilities, or high-tech weaponry. Ready to clash against each other for supremacy, liberty or justice.
In the real world, we can see the battle occurring.
We are either on the front-line, or we can see and hear it through the media - radio, newspapers, television, computer, and periodicals.
This democratic freedom we are enjoying allows us to be more involved and active in our quest for ideals: social equality, justice not-delayed, fair distribution of rights and privileges, etc.
But be careful in the paths that we choose to tread, and likewise be extremely cautious of whose sides to take or join forces with, for unlike in video games where we could have more than one life to spare, the real world offers us only one lifetime to either waste or make sense.
Regardless of who to join, we should always prepare for the battle ahead. Know all your "heroes" strengths and weaknesses, and work as a team to cover up for each others shortcomings. "Malay nyo "IMBA" yung kalaban!"
The war is about to begin, but who will win?
Corona's Powerhouse Legal Team
Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona has put together a powerhouse legal team composed of only the best lawyers of the land.
Leading Corona’s legal team is:
1. Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas
Known for his work as justice secretary during the Estrada administration
An associate justice in the Marcos administration
A lawyer for the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) an influential religious blocs in the country
Former chairman of the INC’s New Era University.
Together with Cuevas are expert litigation lawyers:
2. Eduardo De Los Angeles,
Managing partner at Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles law firm
Professor at the Ateneo Law School
One of the private prosecutors at the impeachment trial of former president Joseph Ejercito Estrada.
served in the academe as Dean for the Ateneo College of Law,
One of Corona’s fraternity brothers at the Ateneo’s Fraternal Order of Utopia.
3. Hector Hofileña
A former Court of Appeals justice,
Vice-Chairman of the Department of Judicial Ethics of the Philippine Judicial Academy of the Supreme Court
Professor at Ateneo Law School
4. Jose “Judd” Roy III.
Former dean of the Pamantansan ng Lungsod ng Maynila law school.
The four I consider as the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" as per Bible characters. The four lawyers do seem like the four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. The four riders are commonly seen as symbolizing Conquest, War, Famine and Death, respectively. ...and those exactly are the repercussions we might experience if Corona's legal team win.
The other lawyers of Corona include:
5. Jacinto Jimenez
Partner at the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles law firm
Professor of law at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of Santo Tomas
6. Ernesto Francisco Jr.
Professor at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and De La Salle University
Principal proprietor, Law Office of Ernesto B. Francisco Jr.
7. German Lichauco II
Partner at Siguion Reyna Montecillo & Ongsiako law firm
Director and corporate secretary of Hereaus Electronic Materials Philippines, Inc., Casa Cebuana, Inc., Cebu Figueroa Estate Corporation and Coco Properties, inc.
Compliance officer with a rank of vice president and corporate secretary of Medical Doctors, Inc., the company which controls and manages the Makati Medical Center Hospital.
8. Dennis Manalo
Former professor at the Lyceum University of the Philippines
Partner at Siguion Reyna Montecillo & Ongsiako law firm
Prosecution Team
The House of Representatives has in turn constituted the team that will prosecute Corona in his Senate impeachment trial.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that he has asked House prosecutors to thoroughly prepare for their job and “present the best possible case that we can” in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Belmonte said he will consult with the prosecution team if the House would have to elect more prosecutors as the impeachment trial moves along.
“We will make available a budget of not more than P5 million for them so they can get the help they want,” he said.
Belmonte, who managed the prosecution in then President Joseph Estrada’s Senate impeachment trial in 2001, recalled that then Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella provided his team with a P5-million budget.
Elected members of the prosecution team were:
1. Neil Tupas Jr. of Iloilo,
2. Erin Tañada of Quezon,
3. Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Norte,
4. Reynaldo Umali of Mindoro Oriental,
5. Giorgidi Aggabao of Isabela,
6. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of 2nd district of Cavite
7. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna partylist
8. Arlene Bag-ao of Akbayan.
9. Raul Daza of Northern Samar
Two will serve as alternate prosecutors.
10. Sherwin Tugna of Citizens Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) partylist
11. Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora
12. Romero Fedrico Quimbo of Marikina will be the spokesperson
13. Joseph Emilio Abaya of 1st district of Cavite as team manager
14. Lawyer Mario Luza Bautista has accepted the offer to be the lead private prosecutor.
Lawyer Mario Luza Bautista made his debut on national TV during Estrada's impeachment trial from December 2000 to January 2001.
As a private prosecutor, Bautista drew out the testimony of Equitable Bank vice-president Clarissa Ocampo on Estrada's alleged multimillion-peso secret bank accounts.
Bautista will return to the impeachment stage as lead prosecutor in the trial of Corona
Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II of mandaluyong said Tupas, Chairman of the Committee on Justice that drafted the impeachment complaint, heads the prosecution team.
Gonzales said Tupas and his colleagues would decide if they have to hire additional private prosecutors.
“The team would now have to prepare for the task ahead by studying the evidence and interviewing witnesses,” he added.
The Prosecution team is like the superhero team Justice League - each with his rightful skills and abilities, all banded together for one common cause.
Please take note:
The list of names from both teams are not yet final and complete. They may still add, remove or change their team members as developments arise. One thing is certain: I will be in close watch on all the updates, and will not dare miss this history in the making.
Final Notes:
Corona was impeached based on three grounds -- culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and graft and corruption. Corona's trial will begin in January.
The Articles of Impeachment, signed by 188 lawmakers, listed eight issues against Corona:
1) Partiality anf subservience in cases involving the Arroyo administration from the time he was appointed as associate justice to the time of his midnight appoinment as chief justice.
2) Failure to disclose to the public his statements of assets and liabilities and networth as required under Section 17, Artcle XI of the 1987 Constitution
3) Failure to meet and observe the stringent standards under the Constitution that provided that a member of the judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence in allowing the Supreme Court to act on mere letters filed by a counsel which caused the issuance of flip-flopping decisions in final and executory cases; in creating an excessive entanglement with Mrs. Arroyo through her appointment of his wife to office; and in discussing with litigants cases pending in the Supreme Court.
4) Blatant disregard of the principle of separation of powers by issuing a status quo ante order against the House of Representatives in the case concerning the impeachment of then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
5) Wanton arbitrariness and partiality in consistently disregarding the principle of res judicata, or resurrecting decided cases, and in deciding in favor of gerrymandering in the cases involving the 16 newly created cities, and the promotion of Dinagat Island into a province;
6)Arrogating unto himself, and to a committee he created, the authority and jurisdiction to improperly investigate an alleged erring member of the Supreme Court for the purpose of exculpating him.
7) Partiality in granting a temporary restraining order in favor of Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo in order to give them an opportunity to escape prosecution and to frustrate the ends of justice, and in distorting the Supreme Court decision on the effectivity of the TRO in view of a clear failure to comply with the conditions of the Supreme Court’s own TRO.
8) Failure and refusal to account for the Judiciary Development Fund and Special Allowance for the Judiciary collections.
Articles of Impeachment Against Renato Corona
Corona has submitted an answer already:
Full text of Corona’s reply to the impeachment complaint
Now that you learn some information about the impending grand battle, I hope you will use them to fight off the "devil" and become a champion. It’s a cold, dark world out there, but we can shed some light and win the lost to Christ.
Jesus said “harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9.37). After all since Jesus is the light of the world and we are in Him that would make us a little light.
Be of good courage. If we continue to fight in spiritual warfare, we will endure to the end. Why? We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus because we have His power and His Spirit.
Quotes:
"The commander must decide how he will fight the battle before it begins. He must then decide who he will use the military effort at his disposal to force the battle to swing the way he wishes it to go; he must make the enemy dance to his tune from the beginning and not vice versa."— Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
"In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."- Dwight David Eisenhower
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