Assets (1)

The biggest telenovela on air has is back for its second season and it's causing a stir, as expected.  What with the revelations by the Ombudsman and the subsequent prayer to block it as evidence, the requests for inhibition, and the Senator-judges' request for CJ to testify falling on deaf ears, season 2 episode 1 of the Impeachment Drama did not fail to disappoint.  Blame the politico's penchant for grandstanding; they should have let seasoned trial lawyers handle the prosecution.  We wouldn't have seen them stammer and stutter their way to the proceedings, unable to counter all blocks and objections thrown every which way by the defense. 


And now, we have the defense blocking everything with technicalities.  They're blocking the evidences by the Ombudsman because the latter has no jurisdiction over the Chief Justice.  They're insinuating that the Senator-judges are not impartial through their prayer of inhibition against one Senator whose son happens to be the Prosecution's spokesman.  And they're blocking everybody's wish that the CJ testify because they cannot be forced to produce a witness who doesn't want to testify.  Never mind the multiple pronouncements of the CJ himself that he will, in time, answer all allegations.  I guess he's waiting for public consciousness to forget about it.  


But there's one thing our esteemed statesmen may have missed.  Public positions are held in public trust, and the normal rule of "innocent until proven guilty" does not apply.  Winnie Monsod said it beautifully when she was grilling Mikey Arroyo over his assets a few years back.  She schooled the poor thing masquerading as congressman that as a holder of public office, your innocence is not presumed; rather it should be established.  And the CJ evading any and all queries about these alleged assets does not paint him an innocent.  All his legal blocks, no matter how suave and sophisticated, merely cements to the public the perception that he is one of the biggest crooks in town.






To be continued...
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