Wednesday, January 25, 2012

IMPEACHMENT: a box-office daytime soap


IMPEACHMENT: a bestselling daytime soap



At the end of each impeachment day; we make our own according to our level of understanding assessment of who made a killing for the day.

The prosecution and I think many will agree with me made a tremendous lead today. They finally found a private prosecutor that refused to be intimidated that in essence matched if not out mouthed the defense.
What I found so entertaining that made this impeachment a bestselling daytime soap is the unexpected twists and turns; the good ingredients for a thrilling story telling of the “Perry Mason” kind. The prosecutor tried hard and in vain to elicit the contents of the CJ Corona’s income tax return due to the insistence of the defense that there is no need to authenticate the ITR because they have not only manifested; they have admitted that the documents are authentic.

The prosecutor as good as he is could have saved time and saved the court from Santiago’s lectures on the rule of court if he had asked a simple question. He actually tried many times to rephrase the question being objected to by the defense but he seemed unable to find the right words :-)

Prosecutor: Do you or don’t have the income tax return of CJ Corona being subpoena by the court.

Witness:  No

Prosecutor: and why is that?

Witness: CJ Corona did not submit any income tax return from 2002 to 2010

These questions came only after more than one hour of wrangling when it could have been asked from the start :-)

The non-submission of income tax return is in fact “the killer line” that shocked me, shocked you and shocked without doubt the sitting senator judges prompting senator Recto to sponge from the witness (like Sen. Drilon for the SALN) the content of the “Alpha list” or withholding taxes.

Afraid that some of the no-stupid senators sitting as judges may question the motive of the defense’s admission of the authenticity of non-existent ITR (that we must assume the defense knew did not exist); Cuevas stopped objecting in order not to embarrass himself :-)

Whoahaha! Ang saya saya.  

I think; it is time for Cuevas to confer with his client and demand from the court to tackle the article of impeachment one at a time meaning they should be allowed rebuttal after the prosecution have rested its case on every article of impeachment. The senator judges like a jury should then confer and deliver judgment on the particular article. Since every article is an impeachable offence; the court can stop once CJ Corona is found guilty in any of the 8 article of impeachment. Not only will it shorten the proceedings; it will save CJ Corona further embarrassment that may eventually lead to criminal cases being filed in ordinary court after the impeachment. Cuevas is a top-gun trial lawyer; he must have in his mind what I am thinking he must do for his client. Since Cuevas can neither argue with a document nor talk to a piece of paper; he might as well advice his client to plead guilty to “betrayal of public trust” and walk away from the Supreme Court. He has amassed enough wealth to spend the rest of his days in comfort here (not KSA) or abroad (not PH).

I am no lawyer but I used to be an ardent Perry Mason fun when I was in the high school some forty years ago or so :-)

NLK

1 comment:

  1. Whoa! Even the people in media are confused in the use of the term ITR or income tax return but if they have been listening; the CJ did not have ITR as in zero. It is real funny how they have been wrangling for more than an hour not to mention Santiago’s diatribe against the prosecutor’s incompetence over an ITR that didn’t exist. The withholding tax or Alpha list is not ITR. The defense is ecstatic that they were able to convince the presiding judge that 2.4 be stricken out because the CJ is not being accused of ill-gotten wealth. The ill gotten wealth is just a word. It can be rephrased like “hindi ko sinasabi na nagnakaw ka e saan galling yang hawak mo malita na puro pera ang laman.” How will the defense justify the more than 40 million assets of the CJ if his only incomes were through his salaries the amount of which is reflected in his withholding tax? It can only be interpreted as ill gotten wealth; there is no other interpretation but hey; Cuevas is a top-gun.

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