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An Alpha Confusion

DAY SIX in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona showed confusion in the court. And it centers on a tax reporting document that even Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile was not familiar of--the Alpha List. It is a list of single-income employees that their company submit to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in lieu of an employee's individual filing of her annual income tax return (ITR).

Prosecution private lawyer Arthur Lim knew the Alpha List well enough; he got serious problem cross-examining the witness, BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares, without touching on the issue of ill-gotten wealth that the Senate, acting as the Impeachment Court, ruled as inadmissible for presentation of evidence. He attempted to continue at least three time, stumbled into the non-issue again and again.

Defense lead counsel Serafin Cuevas was in his elements. He obviously knew what is an Alpha list is. But nevertheless strategically tried to throw the prosecution off the track. He volunteered to confirm as correct and no contest all the ITR that will be presented by the prosecution, obviously in an attempt to prevent presentation. And objected when the Alpha lists will be presented instead of the ITR.

What added most to the confusion was the obvious unfamiliarity of presiding judge Juan Ponce Enrile on what an Alpha list is. And from all indications, he was about to rule that the Alpha list will be prohibited from presentation. In fact, when Lim manifested that the lists cannot be lift in Court because they contain other names, Enrile ruled that "then the evidence are inadmissible to Court."

This is a hilarious situation to watch. The interlocutors seemed not to understand what's going on.

Then, Senator Ralph Recto, impatient on the drama unfolding, came to the rescue. He obviously knew what an Alpha list is. And he succeeded in getting through the confusion, directly asking the Henares questions in order to elicit information that Lim had serious problem of getting to.

The prosecutors of course were the one to blame on this. Lim simply failed to effectively lay grounds for his cross-examination of Henares. Had he asked the witness to clarify confusion on the Alpha list, the confusion could have been prevented. In my mind, at day six of the trial, the prosecution are still fumbling in their presentation, even if practicing trial lawyers tried to help.

In situations like this, prosecutors are expected to have clear and well-organized logic to guide effectively the minds of the Filipino people in a way that makes the presentation of evidence easy to understand. No one can blame the defense; it is their job to muddle the issue in order to get a negative ruling on the articles deliberated.

At the end of the day, an evidence is useless if it cannot be presented to the Court, and done so convincingly.
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