Sara’s impeachment trial the greatest show on earth

Go to the Senate hall during the trial. Sit down. Listen to the proceedings, the presentation of evidence. Let the defense lawyer and the prosecution tangle with each other. Do not interfere, unless you want to ask clarificatory questions to understand the meaning of the evidence being presented or the word uttered by the witness.

That is the advice of former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile to the 23 senators – the judges in the trial of impeached Vice President Sara Duterte. A Harvard-educated lawyer (his admirers claim he never lost a case), JPE was interviewed by Inquirer TV the other day.

Sara’s trial is now in full swing, no more ifs, no more buts. And into the next or 20th Congress – the 20th House of Representatives (the prosecutors) and the 20th Senate (the High Court of Impeachment).

Sara Duterte is accused of seven crimes in seven Articles of Impeachment, to wit:

• Article I: Betrayal of public trust, commission of high crimes due to her threats to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.

• Article II: Betrayal of public trust and graft and corruption due to misuse of confidential funds (CFs) within the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Office of the Vice President (OVP). At least P612.5 million of tax money disappeared in two years through this mechanism. Another P375 million disappeared in 2023.

• Article III: Betrayal of public trust and bribery within the DepEd. DepEd officials involved in procurement received regular bribes to “discipline” them.

• Article IV: Violation of the 1987 Constitution and betrayal of public trust due to unexplained wealth and failure to disclose assets.

• Article V: Commission of high crimes due to involvement in extrajudicial killings in the drug war.

• Article VI: Betrayal of public trust due to alleged destabilization plots and high crimes of sedition and insurrection.

• Article VII: Betrayal of public trust due to the totality of conduct as Vice President.

Duterte’s will be the biggest impeachment trial of this century, a blockbuster. Prepare your or buy new TV sets, update your YouTube or WiFi accounts, take a vacation.

Watch how a vice president threatened to kill the president of the Philippines, not once – but twice, on national TV. Watch how your money, your tax money, disappeared in the name of recipients named after restaurants, snacks, popular Filipino dishes. About P125 million disappeared to these recipients with quaint names – in seven working days.

Additionally, watch how hundreds of millions of tax money, your money, our money, disappeared, allegedly given to over 1,300 recipients, who, official records show, were not even born yet, or do not exist – in real life, or even in the Bible.

Learn how to conduct youth leadership seminars in military camps, collect P15 million each time and yet, not proceed forthwith with the seminars.

Learn how to spend P16 million every quarter for rent of safe houses that do not exist.

Learn how to accumulate more than P2 billion in your bank accounts in 10 years when your job, as mayor, pays only P2.3 million a year. Watch inanities, acts of stupidity, impunity in action in 3D – daring, drama and decrepitude. TV stations should now line up sponsors for impeachment trial prime time.

And hey, did you know that you could wage a vicious illegal drugs campaign, killing hundreds, if not thousands, while at the same time receiving hundreds of millions of tainted drug money from drug lords?

Finally, learn how to be hugely popular and bankroll yourself as the next president, a cinch, despite all your despicable acts.

Enrile, 101, is the most experienced impeachment judge in the land. He was a senator-judge in the impeachment trial of president Joseph Estrada in 2001. He was the presiding officer of the Senate impeachment court (SIC) that tried Chief Justice Renato Corona. Estrada was removed by People Power. Corona was convicted by the Enrile court and was ousted as chief justice.

There were two other targets of impeachment. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez resigned before she could be tried by the Senate. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo escaped impeachment by the House on a technicality – two impeachment cases were filed in a single year, not allowed by the Constitution. But the rebellious military staged two coup attempts against GMA and sold her “Hello, Garci” tape to Estrada (for P47 million). In the process, Arroyo became the most maligned president despite presiding over the longest economic expansion (36 quarters) in the history of this country.

With past impeachment efforts as a guide, impeached Sara Duterte is not guaranteed acquittal even if 18 of the 23 senator-judges seem biased in her favor. Corona was convicted for not disclosing his dollar account in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN). But dollar accounts are supposed to be secret; you don’t need to disclose them. And who of our senators and congressmen do not have a foreign currency or dollar account?

Estrada was ousted because an envelop supposedly containing incriminating evidence of (gambling) bribery was not allowed by the majority of the senator-judges to be opened. The prosecution walked out. The presiding officer, Hilario Davide, did not cite the prosecution in contempt, and instead convened his Supreme Court to concoct a new jurisprudence – constructive resignation. Erap thought of resigning at one point and therefore, that is as good as having resigned. Wow. Davide then went to the EDSA Shrine in Quezon City and swore into office VP Arroyo as “acting” president. Her presidency lasted nine years. A class act.

Sara calls her trial a “bloodbath.” Forthwith, she has assembled no less than 16 lawyers to defend her before the Senate High Court of Impeachment.

Senator-judges, remember Enrile’s advice.

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