Netizens are on a wishful thinking mode. They hark back to the day on May 29, 2012 when then senator-judge Pia Cayetano voted to convict Chief Justice Renato Corona in his senate impeachment trial.
Posterity’s resibo, thanks to Vera Files, has the complete transcript of the senator-judge’s speech. Today’s wishful thinkers hanker that she may do the same in the verdict for Sara Duterte. It is perhaps because they see that obtaining a vote to convict from her is a fantastic reality.
Imagine the senator-judge in that fantasy:
Today, we face a difficult task of deciding whether the man who holds the highest position in the Supreme Court has committed acts tantamount to betrayal of public trust that would warrant his removal from office. It is all the more difficult for me because I took my oath before this man.
In June 2010, the lady Cayetano took her oath of office as senator before Chief Justice Corona.
Further, impeachment cases are heard by senator judges with different professional backgrounds. Of the 23 senator-judges, less than half of us are lawyers. Thus, I was challenged and admittedly burdened by the need to balance my legal training as a lawyer and my calling as a public servant, particularly a senator-judge.
How did she achieve the logic of that balance that burdened her? In fact, she cut and cut cleanly by immediately refuting Corona’s defense. It was a surgical strike:
The Chief Justice states that the requirement in the Constitution to declare one’s assets, liabilities, and net worth, is “AS MAY BE REQUIRED BY LAW”. He then cites RA 6426 or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act (FCDA), as that law which states dollar deposits are absolutely confidential, thus providing him with a shield. But is that the law in point? I submit it is not.
It is RA 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, which, among others, requires the submission of a Statement of Assets and Liabilities (SALN) and provides for the details thereof. It requires stating all kinds of assets including cash on hand and in banks.
There are no exceptions.
To allow the contrary view would be setting a deadly precedent. It would allow any official to hide his assets behind the cloak of the FCDA.
Notice how she easily shifts the burden on the perspective of the SALN. By this time, readers will notice that the same legal issue confronts Sara Duterte.
As a lawyer, to me, minor inaccuracies in the SALN, such as parking lots or a unit whose ownership is under contention, would not amount to betrayal of public trust. In fact corrections are allowed under the law. But, the failure to declare 2.4 million dollars and some P80 Million pesos is not minor.
Those of us who sit as judges, those who acted as prosecutors and all those in public service should not hide behind our titles. We must come clean and give meaning to the constitutional requirement that we declare all our assets.
Mr. President, on the accusation made in Article 2, I find the respondent GUILTY.
The wishful thinkers hope Cayetano will not contradict herself. In fact, Pia Cayetano has contradicted herself innumerable times with her obvious demeanor in the current impeachment court. She is one of four senators who do not hide their partisanship and impartiality to Sara Duterte.
Who are the other three? The watchful public knows them by heart and by gut: Robin Padilla, Imee Marcos, and the other Cayetano, Alan Peter.
Will Pia Cayetano vote to convict Sara Duterte?
Not in the same manner as when she voted in 2012. In fact, she showed she can play footsies. While not part of the core administration majority bloc in the Senate then, she aligned with the key policy goals of the Aquino administration in 2012. She played politics.
There are only two ways for Pia Cayetano to vote to convict Sara Duterte.
One is accountability. She will submit to the administration’s will to investigate the alleged flood control scandals of the Cayetanos in Taguig.
The other is whimsical – that she will put national interests over self.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.