Cutting down the trial time

Prominent lawyer Theodore Te has aired a solution to the problem of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, which could stretch to several months as projected by most analysts. At the rate the trial is going, it would take at least two months for the prosecution to present all its evidence – after which the defense will take its turn. All in all, the entire proceeding will take up much of the year, during which time the resources of Congress will be tied up in this one endeavour and the media will have little choice but follow it because it is, after all, a historic trial, one that will certainly sharply turn the country one way or another.

But Te, a media savvy lawyer, believes this is counter-productive and thus needs to be cut short, and he has advocated a process that will do just that: take video depositions of the key witnesses’ testimonies ahead of time and show these to the senator-judges. Te points out that this was done in the impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton in 1999, when the crucial testimonies of both Monica Lewinsky and Clinton himself were both taken on deposition and videotaped and presented to the Senate. This, he said, allowed the US Senate to deliberate for two days in closed session and then vote on the third day. In the case of the Corona trial, Te believes taking depositions would cut the trial time down by a third.

The question, of course, is if the personalities involved in the trial, particularly the members of Congress, are willing to give up the valuable “air time” that the trial offers. Imagine getting free publicity and being able to translate it to campaign material for the 2013 elections – they would need millions of pesos to match that. But this is a test of their willingness to give up their own ambitions for the sake of the nation. A prolonged trial will not be good for the country, and there is a need to be productive soon lest we fall back to our old ways – which would be a pity since we are only now getting back on our feet.

Dirty tricks

The battle between government troops and the New People’s Army (NPA) is fought not just in the field but also in the media. Sometimes even media outlets can get caught in the crossfire of propaganda material. One case in point is the recent clashes in Mindanao that the rebels say have claimed the lives of scores of soldiers. As the NPA tells the story, they successfully mounted a number of ambushes and attacks on government troops that resulted in large numbers casualties on the side of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The military, for its part, has denied the body count and claimed that, in fact, it is the NPA that suffered huge losses to its own troops.

Which side is telling the truth will probably never be known, but it is worth noting that in a clash at a banana plantation in Compostela Valley Province last week, the military has attempted to pressure media to correct reports on the number of government troops who were killed. Earlier reports – based on an initial police count – had placed the government casualties at 10, of which one was a soldier and two were security guards. Not so, the AFP said; there were only six casualties, and all of them were rebels. Such a denial is well and good and could easily be reported as such, but when the military insists that media “rectify” a valid report – after all, it was based on a police count – then one must wonder if there is something being hidden.

The same may be said of the rebels, who have shown a penchant for rattling off body counts with no evidence in sight. That would be the easiest thing in the world to do; knowing how difficult it is to verify casualties, they proceed to claim unbelievable numbers in the apparent hope of convincing the people they are winning their war against the government. Worse, the NPA presumes to accuse the AFP of literally lying to the people, a claim that, again, cannot be verified and drips with malice.

The two groups should know that the people can see through any exaggeration and any lie they can throw, and they are only doing their respective causes a disservice when they fight their war using dirty tricks and tactics.

Jon Joaquin is the managing editor of the largest circulation newspaper in Mindanao, the Mindanao Daily Mirror in Davao City.

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