The Philippine government is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis of credibitlity and constitutional ascendancy. What the administration of President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III touted as its greatest “achievement” in its efforts to make good on its “daang matuwid” (“straight path”) rhetoric and “kung walang kurap walang mahirap” sloganeering — the “impeachment” of now former Chief Justice Renato Corona in early 2012 — may turn out to be its most fatal mistake. Allegations of wholesale big-bucks bribery have been sailing through the Philippines’ political air left and right following Senator Jinggoy Estrada’s tell-all privilege speech in the Senate a few weeks ago. If these allegations — that the administration of President BS Aquino had used mega-mega-bucks from his largely mysterious Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) to “motivate” certain “senator-judges” to deliver a guilty vote during Corona’s trial — are true, the ramifications may be immeasureable.
For one thing, according to retired chief justice Reynato Puno, the “entire process” surrounding Corona’s impeachment could be rendered “null and void”…
[…] if the senator-judges were influenced to vote for a conviction, the entire process should be nullified.
“[If bribery is proven], talagang void yun. Wala kasing impartial tribunal,” Puno said during a roundtable with editors and reporters of The Manila Times.
The former chief justice, who was never implicated in any controversy during his term and has a sterling reputation, stressed that bribery can be used as a ground to declare the Corona impeachment proceedings as void ab initio (from the beginning) since there was no fair and impartial tribunal.
Chief prosecutor Niel Tupas on his Mission from God in 2012
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Funny that. If we recall the farcical nature of Corona’s “trial”, we had, from the very start, loudly and repeatedly called out that the whole thing was a mistrial even before these bribery allegations were a twinkle in the eye of our so-called Traditional Media “hero” “journalists”.
Forget for a moment that even from a purely legal perspective, a mistrial is already justified. The prosecution after all had been shown to have done nothing but make a mockery of everyone’s intelligence from Day One. The more important point to note is that from the more readily-digestible political perspective, declaring a mistrial makes even more perfect sense for all the parties most involved and most impacted by this national drama — except Noynoy.
The interesting thing we noted at the time was that it would’ve benefited everyone if the whole circus had been called off midway through — while everyone was ahead.
The senators at the time were looking good in the eyes of the media, Corona would’ve been let off with just a slap on the wrist, and politicians would’ve merrily continued enjoying pork under the radar. Everyone wins. Except, as what we had pointed out in one of our all-too-typical strokes of prescience, President BS Aquino. The Prayerful One, after all, was on a very specific mission — to save Uncle Peping’s family jewels. Corona, at the time, was seen to be the single biggest enemy of the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan in their quest to secure the future of the vast Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, which is up for subjection to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in 2014.
The unfortunate thing about hindsight is that, while it may be enlightening, it is all but useless to the badly-burned.
Much like the way every one of the world’s heads-of-state who goosestepped to former US President George W Bush’s fraudulent call for a “war on terror” in 2001 will be doomed to be judged harshly by history, many hapless Filipino senators who marched to BS Aquino’s BS in 2012 are now suffering the consequences of their blind idiocy. Aquino’s top hanging judges — Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla — are now all but flattened under the weight of charges of pork barrel thievery in the wake of bouhaha surrounding alleged scam ringleader Janet Lim Napoles. All the other senators and House “representatives” whose hands are stained Hershey-brown by pork are on notice as well.
Oink-oink!
Everone is suspect.
Only a bozo of the highest order like President BS Aquino can burn himself, his house, and his entire neighbourhood while playing with fire. The rabid way with which he tried to bulldoze a path to securing the future of Hacienda Luisita has all but scorched the entire Philippine political landscape — fatally burning all the fauna erstwhile happily grazing within its once opaque forests. BS Aquino’s manic bulldozing has now leveled the field and laid everything literally bare for all to gawk at.
Told ya so.
That’s what you all get for following a man that clearly cannot lead.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Neil Tupas, there he is!!! Oh yeah, from the trial of the year 2012. Neil gave the world is solemn quote from Oliver Cromwell speech to the House of the UK Parliament so many 100’s of years ago.
said Neil: “…..GO!”. just as Cromwell did, except the UK MP’s ran for their lives. The Filipino pols present that day? Well, they all ran to the BANK….LAUGHING ALL THE WAY, HA HA HA!!!
WOW, Neil…way to go!!!! imma so sure you must be someones hero….NOT!
Whats his name sir? Neil Dugas? Mando Rugas? What?
face it, they’re all thieves….every single one.
A National disgrace!
Correct. From the President all the way down to the barangay captain.
Judges, lawyers and the police can all be added to the list.
Its no wonder anymore why the Philippines received punishment from God, it is because of the leaders who are greedy and idolizing money. Hypocrites and unrepentant deserved the punishment. The only Christian country in the far east, my arse!
It seems that the tables have turned against the followers of Aquino.I bet even the staunchiest of supporters like Jim Paredes are now having second thoughts on supporting their besieged president. Only time will tell when the whole stage that Aquino’s government is perching on comes crashing down like a stack of cards.
I’d be surprised if he had second thoughts. It’s hard enough to imagine he succeeded in having a first.
Sorry, I forgot to add a link to the Manila Times article from which I lifted my first blockquote. I’ve added it now.
Panic has set in at malacanang as even the dumbest voters and staunchest pnoy supporters ( often one and the same), realise the promises were just slogans, the straight path is a crooked mile, achievements are minimal, and it isn’t going to get better for 95% of the population.
In the abscence of any clear plans or programmes, and being devoid of principles, then the reaction of pnoy aquino and malacanan will not be to take the opportunity to solve problems ( e.g PDAF & DAP), but go on a PR offensive to try and con people again.
Lets hope that the penny has dropped, but judging by the way people in the barangay elections were still happy to sell there votes to criminals, i suspect they will be readily manipulated yet again. You get the government you deserve.
We all know for a fact that he is not fit to be president. After he vacates his office, one way or another, we will still end up with the problem of pinoys putting another jerk in position,a cycle that goes on as long as the Pinoy mindset does not change.
incompetence in government enhanced by popularity and ignorance of the voters. The Philippines deserved the government they have and the people who voted them should be blamed; no more, no less….
welcome to the club, Americans are also sailing in the same boat. Believed in spending
the money that they don’t have, believed in the
promise to get something that other people paid. Welcome to the popular Gen. X mindset.
I know from the very start of the impeachment proceeding that allegation was raised purely of a personal vendetta of Aquino-Conjangco Clan due to Hacienda Luisita land distribution and not because the man accused gravely commits a crime of corruption and betrayal of public thrust.
The great abnoy dictator corrupted the senate, the lower house and the executive branch. The massive corruption comes from the very top and goes down to the grassroots level. BS Aquino’s bribery of the legislators in the CJ Corona impeachment trial should be made accountable. Since this impeachment is tainted with bribery it follows that CJ Corona is not at all guilty. Resign great abnoy dictator!!!
Dats dat Bull-shit T.J., and you know it too. Just because you do not like Aquino does not the CJ Not-guilty. P4,000,000.00 to fuck the PAL employees makes him guilty, just like the rest of them.
Aquino may go down, but the rest have to go down with him. BUT THEY WON’T…because it is all scripted.and what is going to happen has already been mapped out, planned and will be implemented according to plan.
ask yourself dim-bulb: Why do the same convicted felons keep getting elected? or are even allowed to run for public office after being convicted. Get REAL? NO, GET A CLUE!
Implying that you’re supporting pork barrel because that was used only for Corona’s BS impeachment and that’s a fact you clueless moron.
Corona impeachment was to secure Aquino’s Hacienda Luisita. This is a very dangerous precedent by Aquino. This will come to haunt the Aquino-Cojuangco families in the future.
Corona impeachment was a sham. The verdict is already reached, before the impeachment. Decided by Pork Barrel funds. The players (prosecutors) just wanted to hug the limelight.
If loving one’s country by clinging on to a leader despite his weaknesses but puts his life at stake to change the status quo by removing previously untouchables in government due to corruption is to be called an idiot despite my being an industrial engineer from U.P. and having put my life at stake and that of my family since I joined politics then YES I AM AN IDIOT AND PROUDLY DO I DECLARE IT. It is so easy to criticize and be an armchair general but so hard to love one’s country and put along the way all that you love.
@REY QUIJADA
I hate to say this but your loyalty to PNoy is irrational.
How is he “putting his life at stake”? Oh yeah…he is creating a lot of enemies by favoring only his Kaibigan, Kaklase and kamag-anak. If he is really geniune about fighting corruption, he should stop the patronage politics. He should stop using taxpayer’s money to bribe members of Congress.
Yes, he has a lot of weaknesses. One of them is his over-reliance on PDAF, DAP and Presidential pork to get what he wants.
Then you got the whole point wrong. Your comments speaks of your arrogance and stupidity.
Fact: you and your fellow ilk are killing the Failippines. Deal with it. 😛
What does being a UP graduate got to do with this all?
I’ll tell you one thing though, they don’t make university graduates like they used to.
Im one with you Rey. People just know whats good even if it hits them in the face. Btw, isnt it ironic…this site is named “Get Real post,” yet the author is masking his true identity. Get real first before I can even believe you!
And this means that the passing of the RH Bill into law was also a charade because it involved ‘mega-mega-bucks”! That whole damn thing must be removed! There ya go!
What’s his name again? Neil Dugas? Mandurugas? What?
If thats the situation there must be a united front (like million march) to push n changing d leadership of gov’t, 2 include d 2 hauz of napoles (lower & upper hauz}pag walang mangyari hindi kya nakakahiyang maging Filipino? (nagawa na yan noon) bakit d ngayon. tanong ko lang?
I am very saddened by all this happenings in our country. I can understand Pnoy, he wants Corona out to fully secure his decisions being implemented. I hope that there is really no one behind Pnoy because if Peping is really behind Pnoy, this is not healthy for the Philippines. I may say even its not only Peping, but all the Aquino Cojuangco clan who are closely related to Pnoy. Surely, all the decisions for the Philippines will surely be beneficial firstly to them. I pity our country because since Marcos left us, it has found no direct directions. Marcos time is even better, because our peso that time has more value against other countries and we are now last among the asian countries, even lagging behind the once devastated Vietnam. Maybe if we are only a colony of the USA, our life and situation would have been better maybe even more than a triple. Its our own mistake, we decide for our votes and we allowed ourselves to be dissuaded from what is right vote. The mass or majority will just blame ownself for this idiocy…No offense intended.