FROM the beginning of this trial I have been looking for a reason to acquit. Based on compassion, based on the basic precept that a man is innocent until proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, and based on my own personal experience, I know what it is like to have my family maligned and to be deprived of due process.
That being said this trial is not about personalities, emotions or partisan politics. This is about judging, whether the highest magistrate in the highest court of the land is fit for the job.
Is his integrity beyond any doubt? Is his understanding of the law absolute and beyond question as the position demands? At every moment in his legal career did he speak out against injustice and uphold the law, rising above us all?
An institution is only as strong as its leader and we, senator-judges, are only extensions of the will of the people. We have gone through the process to bring as close as possible to certainty it is my opinion that we have not proven if the defendant is corrupt or if he is malicious.
What is clear is that based on the doubts cast on his capability to dispense justice and to do his duty. He is no longer fit to preside the highest court in the land.
Ang malinaw po ngayon, ay may duda na sa kakayahan ng ating punong hukhom. Doubt is the opposite of faith and faith is the source of hope. Doubt does not happen in our brain where reason lives but in our hearts where our moral compass rests.
I vote to ask the chief justice to step down from the pedestal, where he was installed by the nation and where he was supposed to preside over the highest court in the land.
So he may once more walk among our people, where all public officials must be judges. Bumalik na siya dito sa atin sa piling ng taong bayan para maranasan nya ang bunga ng kanyang pagkukulang.
Sambayanang Pilipino, ang hatol ko po ay guilty.
Mr. Chief Justice, I wish you strength and honor , thank you Mr. President.
