Interest in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona appeared to sputter last week when the defense appeared to run out of witnesses to present while waiting for Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to free up her schedule for a repeat appearance.
The disappointment was to be short-lived, however. All of a sudden, the defense announced that Corona himself will be taking the stand. But before that, a “star-studded” lineup of hostile witnesses will be taking the stand first.
The “star-studded” lineup includes partylist Rep. Walden Bello, senatorial hopeful Riza Hontiveros Baraquel, civil society leader Harvey Keh, and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, who has started investigating alleged dollar deposits of Corona at the instigation of the former.
So the hearings for the week are expected to be pretty interesting, if not downright explosive, as the coming batch of witnesses are no longer just bank officials or real estate developers or minor civil servants.
Coming up are mostly people of political substance. And all of them are truly “hostile” in the very sense of the word as they all are lumped on the side that wants Corona out, including the Ombudsman herself.
And all of these, of course, will lead to the appearance of Corona himself, hopefully by next week. Prior to deciding to take the stand, there had been mounting pressure for Corona to do so. Now that he is going to, it is hoped he can put his story up for decision.
And that brings the trial to a real cause for worry. A personal appearance by Corona, while immensely beneficial to the case, can also be its own Achilles heel, considering the intensity of passions such appearance is certainly going to generate.
Passions have a way of occluding the truth, which is what the impeachment of Corona is supposedly all about in the first place, unless of course you factor in the real political causes that no one wants to publicly acknowledge. So, will the truth out? That’s what prayers are about.