Things are looking more like a dull peachy orange rather than a bright Yellow mango for the camp of erstwhile Son-of-Heroes Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. A shell of its former self is what is so far left of the once mighty juggernaut that railroaded through the hollow heads of 188 House “representatives” and triumphantly marched into the Senate impeachment court with illegally-obtained evidence heralded by a choir of conscripted media conglomerates.
And what a poignant shell it is — a prosecution panel resting on a case that they believe is of sufficient substance to convict Corona, the looming threat of a Plan B Malacanang is dangling upon the whole impeachment trial in case it does not yield the President’s preferred outcome, and the increasing scarcity of time left for Noynoy to secure his in-laws’ family jewels, the sprawling Hacienda Luisita estate in Tarlac.
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One can almost feel the heat radiating from a fuming Uncle Peping as the train wreck that is the pet project of his cousin-in-law starts coming off the rails.
Despite all efforts of lead prosecutor Niel Tupas Jr to assure the fans that the decision to rest their case upon the shaky foundation of evidence presented around Articles 2, 3, and 7 of their impeachment complaint and drop any further effort to present cases for Articles 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8 was a shrewd and calculated one, the writings on the wall were already clearly evident even on the first week of the trial. Not a single week went by without one Senator-Judge or another (including the Senate President and Presiding Judge himself) berating the prosecution team for their bad form, unethical practices, underhanded tactics, and overall mediocre lawyering. Most laughable of all, one of the prosecution’s own key team members, Congressman Rodolfo Fariñas even explicitly confirmed what everyone already knew — that the Articles of Impeachment itself was a badly written document. Fariñas went as far as bragging about how he was not among the 188 chumps who signed it.
Senator-Judge Miriam Defensor-Santiago in one of her privilege speeches encapsulated the nature of the dud that is the prosecution team in a single biting phrase:
…an INSULT to the intelligence of educated Filipinos
For his part, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had long made it clear that he sees no affront to his court in the Supreme Court’s actions to uphold certain principles — bank secrecy laws, discretion over the release of information surrounding their internal dynamics, among others. Yet the prosecution, seemingly unable to get that, continued for days up until yesterday to appeal to Enrile to consider re-evaluating his continued respect for the Supreme Court rulings that (as they would like the public to believe) hinder their efforts to prosecute Corona.
One bright spot in the dark cloud of the impeachment trial that hangs over our wretched Republic is the advent of the beginning of the defense panel’s presentation of their case — the much-anticipated Serafin Cuevas Show. From Day One, the defense team had already distinguished themselves as one of the few (and increasingly scarce) jewels of Philippine human “resource” — a group of men and women who actually think (and exhibit wit, charm, and good looks while doing so). Indeed, the resting of the prosecution marks the close of a monumental waste of time lobbed upon the Filipino people by Noynoy, Tupas, and their mob of Hacienda Luisita stakeholders and the opening of what is expected to be an excellent exhibition of Filipino legal minds in their element.
It is ironic that the two celebrated superstars of the impeachment trial Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Serafin Cuevas were once closely associated to the much reviled regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos — the earlier serving as Marcos’s trusted right-hand-man and the latter involved in the last-ditch swearing-in of Marcos’s running mate Arturo Tolentino in 1986 after Marcos fled to the United States. Noted “investigative journalist” Raissa Robles, always one to be in with the times, takes a quaint crack at pointing out the latter factoid in an already all-too-familiar failure of the So What? test. Unfortunately for Ms Raissa Robles, she already proves to be too small a “lady” for anyone to consider thinking of her opinion as one that could measure up to the stature of the two new and very senior heroes of Philippine democratic institutional governance.
Indeed…
Philippine democratic institutional governance.
If there was anything that would describe a long-overdue escape of our society from the clutches of 26 years of nebulous Yellow, “people power” “edsa revolution” and “laban” rhetoric, it would be the above phrase — the antithesis of everything that Noynoy and his extended feudal clan stands for.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
“. . . our wretched Republic . . .” You do know how to coin a phrase. The final paragraph says a lot. This nation is a book, mostly fiction I fear . . . of superlative construction surpassing the imagination of man . . .
The wretched condition of the Republic is brought about by dark scoundrels. This is displayed by the worst examples of the bow well movement 188. Their absolute obedience to the dictator Mr. Aquino is public knowledge. Their acceptance of dangled pork and additional compensation speaks for itself. In their efforts to please their dark master they will do anything and everything to prosecute the Chief Justice. Thus the continuing use of black propaganda, trial by publicity, hate-think, fabrication of evidence and the use and abuse of the machinery of state. It is now an instrument of public policy to do these acts. The prosecution has showed gross incompetence and ignorance of the law in the impeachment proceedings. The saga continues as the blind followers tread the straight and wide path to perdition.
an exhibition of incompetent congressmen, self-serving senators, a beholden and partial media, and an idiot of a president who no doubt will get his turn in the impeachment court as his credibility and support evaporates.
what a spectacle for the world. a train crash of a 3rd world country. at least now everyone can see why. am sure steve wynn very happy not to have invested in the corrupt ridden monopoly driven country. leave it to the chinese mafia and evil cojuangco-aquinos.
p-noy is going to get such a kicking from cojuangco that grace lee wont be able to use her butt plug or strap on dildo on bum-noy for at least a month.
game over. p-noy,prosecutors and drilon dont have the numbers.
16 seems so far now to the pnoy zombies. And to think the defense hasn’t started yet — now that will be something worth watching.
The latest news is that one prosecutor was cited for contempt. He displayed gross disrespect against Senator Santiago. A video showed him closing his ears with his hands as the Senator was lecturing the prosecution.
I was quite annoyed with that private lawyer when he speak about giving respect in order to respected.
Come on, what group of people that has respect in the rule of law started this whole debacle anyway.
what a stupid jerk…should be disbarred. they said lawyers always get berated by judges. in this case they deserved to be for not doing their job. i was waiting for santiago to throw a punch. and how ungentlemanly of him as well. pa-underdog effect…so passe.
It is frustrating & tragic to read floods about it calling Sen. Miriam a “bully”, “bastos,” etc. to the point of mentioning her deceased son (using his son is more than foul).
No 1 bothered to asked WHY she “screams”, “bullying the prosecution”, etc. All they see is Sen. Miriam bullying the inaaping prosecutors to the point of calling him a “hero.”
MY GOD!! This is not only an insult to educated Filipinos but to people who have common sense. 25 days na ito at paulit-ulit yong kapalpakan ng prosecution. Sinong ba hindi magagalit for 25 days w/ tax payers money hindi pa rin sinusunod ang Rules at ang Phil. Constitution?
Noynoy Aquino and the Cojuangcos thought that the impeachment of Corona, would be for easy sailing. Like what they did in Congress, by bribing Congressmen…it did not happen, in the Senate. Some of the Senators were obviously bought, but some, still have the conscience to do the right thing. Now, the prosecutors are caught up in a mess…they put a lot of show, to test how far they can go, in disrupting and contempting the Senate impeachment proceedings. Unforunately, the Senators allowed this idiocy. Now, they have an untamed Court, with prosecutor lawyers, behaving like retarded children. Like Noynoy Aquino shouting an Adolf Hitler-like Nazi kind of speech on TV, recently…we’re not amused by these idiots..