Even before the start of his impeachment trial CJ Renato Corona spoke on December 15 last year before the nation and uttered his truth in the midst of a cheering crowd. “I oppose this dictatorship that President Benigno Simeon Aquino III is slowly establishing.” “We will not allow them to disrespect and trample on our democracy and the Supreme Court.” The Chief Justice even attributed his impeachment to the present administration’s eagerness to appoint justices “who will grant their every request.” This is Corona’s truth which drew superficial attention and passing rebuttal from the public and from Malacanang spokesmen.
More than the nitty gritty of evidence and testimonies by witnesses during the past eight weeks of relentless courtroom drama, the opening salvo, this first missile fired by the Chief Justice tells much about the man and his truth; about his character; the quality of his discernment of actual events in recent history, and the predictive capacity of his thoughts. It can be the truth rather than falsehood what he saw in an evolving dictatorship in the country and nothing but the whole truth about maximum control of the Supreme Court desired by an incumbent President. Even if CJ Corona is not on trial, he can advanced this, his perceived truth so long as P Noy is the sitting President.
Certainly the Chief Justice must have solid basis and roots for his truth about dictatorship and servile Supreme Courts. On the truth of possible dictatorship, the Marcos one is of recent vintage as source of predictable truth. The annals of post World War II Philippines Supreme Court attests as it more than suggests cooperation and collaboration with whoever was President. The Supreme Court was perceived by libertarians as happily on its knees in judicious prayer during the reign of the dictatorship; while it was transformed into smilingly cooperative court upon restoration of democracy during the time of Corazon Aquino. During the time of Fidel Ramos and Erap Estrada, the Supreme Court was content and inspired in silent and subtle hybridization of the rule of law, adapting and adopting aberrations, deemed profitable lessons learned during recent judiciary history. And during the time of Gloria Arroyo? There was only one branch of government: the executive branch. The legislative and judicial branches became the less distinctive part of a spider’s seamless web. The President sits and rules at the center. President Gloria Arroyo serendipitously discovered she did not even need to declare Martial Law.
So the Chief Justice when he put forward his perceives truth about dictatorship and a servile Supreme Court has factual basis for his reasons after all. His truth seems to be more than clairvoyance. His more truth rather than falsehood although they may not be relevant to decide his fitness to occupy high public office speaks positively of him. After all man does not live by truth alone, rather more fitting perhaps to say man does not live by lies alone.
Sages say there is truth when what is inside your head matches or is the same as what is outside. Truth is truth if only and only if the professed whole or everything must be the actual reality. When there is variance or even just an iota of difference, the truth becomes a falsehood.
Corona’s truth will have to pass the test of time to prove it is not mere psychic prediction. The factual events of history may repeat itself but not in toto: true, there might emerge dictatorship and obedient Supreme Court but not the way it happened before. No man can step in the same river twice so said a philosopher.
P Noy’s and Corona’s trust and approval ratings from surveys can be indicative of the truth to come. If P Noy’s bosses (the sovereign people) decides not to vote Crooks back into the Congress, decides to amend the constitution for his extended governance and help him clean up the country’s judiciary and the bureaucracy, and P Noy’s henchmen succeeded to unlearned old frivolities and extravagance to follow the straight path, then this is the kind of truth—which Corona wrongly or correctly saw—that will dismay, appal, even horrify some people.
