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Denying the Truth

IT IS NO accident that we refer to God as the Truth with the capital "T." Truth has a way of getting through no matter the obstacles that those who want to deny it will put up on its way as long as people of good will do something actively to uphold it. In fact, even in the denial of truth, truth itself can be revealed.

At this early point of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, the truth made itself unsuppressable despite the attempts of the defense team headed by former associate justice Serafin Cuevas. It is understandable that the defense lawyers are doing what they think their job is in preventing their client from getting convicted for the Second Article of Impeachment. It is understandable, and in fact expected, of them to do what they usually do in criminal courts, going to technical objections on every turn in the hope that objections can suppress the truth with so much adversarial hullabaloo.

But what the defense failed to see is the fact that each time they tried to suppress an evidence against Corona, they are indirectly admitting that the evidence can be damaging to their case. And an evidence can only be damaging when it is consistent and supportive to the complaint filed against the client. It shows only that even the defense team knows, or at least suspects, that the client can be guilty as charged. That's the only reason to fear the evidence. That's the only reason to fear the truth that the evidence might bring into the case. Their attempts at denying the truth a hearing for the day telegraphs to the people that they feared the truth--the truth that their client is guilty.

Such is one fatal tactic that the defense team has fallen into. They forget that the impeachment proceeding is not a criminal trial but a search for the truth that is not bound to the rules of the criminal court; rules that can be bogged down by legal technicalities. The impeachment court does not need proof of criminal act, but of certainty that the client does not merit the peoples' trust. And what can destroy that trust the more is their obvious maneuvers at preventing the truth from coming out.

Had the defense showed itself open for the truth to come out, people will know that they too are there looking for the truth. That they too are there to confirm their confidence on the innocence of their client, and want to find out the truth by welcoming all the evidence that the accusers can present against the client; not to hide behind all technicalities they can summon to justify their objections against evidences. This fatal error can be the undoing of their case before the eyes of the Filipino people, and obviously before the Impeachment Court whose senator-judges are not blind to the motives behind these delatory tactics, these efforts to suppress the truth. 

Here's my unsolicited advise to the defense team. If they truly believe that Corona is not guilty as charged in the articles of impeachment, let the prosecution present all the evidence they can in order to clear out the air of suspicion building over the head of their client. Otherwise, they will lose this case, for sure, and in both courts--that of the Impeachment Court and that of the public opinion.

At the end of the day, the truth will eventually prevail in this trial. The Senate convened as the Impeachment Court that tries the Chief Justice is fully accountable to the people for uncovering the truth behind these allegations. If it cannot do its job, the heads of the senators will roll during the elections. And if the chief magistrate is indeed guilty as charged, it is high time that he be replaced from such a critical post in our democracy. Doing less than that is a sin whose impact can redound to future generations, and by its consequence unforgivable.
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