EDITORIAL - Kick them all out

Too bad for Sen. Rene Cayetano, who still hasn’t successfully wriggled out of allegations that he and his son be-nefited unduly from trading in Best World Resources shares. The accusations were hurled by presidential friend Dante Tan, who is under investigation for alleged stock manipulation and insider trading involving BW shares. An enraged Cayetano took the Senate floor to say that President Estrada himself was behind Tan’s effort to discredit the opposition senator. For good measure, Cayetano veered away from the impeachment trial, alleging that the President interfered in the Vizconde massacre case to seek the acquittal of principal accused Hubert Webb.

We haven’t heard the last of the BW controversy involving Cayetano. Tan is still on the offensive, trying to turn the tables on the President’s accusers in the BW scandal. And the President’s political allies in the Senate are also on the offensive, trying to disqualify Cayetano from the trial, saying he has prejudged the case and is biased against Mr. Estrada.

His peers will have the final say on Cayetano’s fate. While they’re at it, they should also start considering the conduct of the other judges in the impeachment court. They can start with the balato twins – Senators Tessie Aquino-Oreta and John Osmeña. These two should have been investigated a long time ago for receiving P1 million each in mah-jongg tips from the President. Their admission and return of the money, which confirmed some of the allegations of the President’s accuser Luis Singson, did not erase the anomalous circumstances. If senators want to disqualify Cayetano, they should also disqualify Oreta and Osmeña. As for bias, Filipinos have known from the start who among the senators are for or against the President.

And while they’re at it, the senators should also consider the conduct of the defense lawyers. There’s Estelito Mendoza, who has yet to give a satisfactory explanation of his role in drawing up a document that would have made it appear that presidential friend Jaime Dichaves owned the "Jose Velarde" account in Equitable PCI Bank. There are the Fortun brothers whose idea of undermining the cre-dibility of a witness was to send her on a wild-goose chase in the Senate gallery. And finally there’s retired Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, who according to Edgardo Espiritu chaired the Philippine National Bank when it approved a P600-million loan to the troubled gaming firm Best World Resources Corp. even without sufficient collateral.

Go ahead, kick them all out of the impeachment court.