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
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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