I am very uncomfortable at the way the prosecutors from the House of Representatives are going after Chief Justice Corona. I do not see much sense in their making public their evidence against the Chief Justice.        

They seem so eager to reveal what they have discovered that  they don’t mind anymore if they are telegraphing their future moves to the  defense  panel.

Congressman Niel Tupas, particularly appears like  a sophomore who is over-eager to  hug the limelight even prior to the trial by the Senate. He seems to lack the necessary gravitas expected of a representative burdened with the responsibility of seeing that  justice is done to the people and to Corona.

If the prosecuting panel is not careful,  Chief Justice Corona may become in the eyes of the people the persecuted underdog. 

To tell the truth, if the impeachment of Corona had been done with the same haste under the administration of  former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, there would have been an uproar from not a few bishops.

Now that hardly any bishop has expressed any adverse reaction, let not President Aquino and the prosecutors complacently think that they can do anything to unseat the chief justice.

If the bishops should perceive  serious flaws in the morality and not only in the  legality  of the proceedings,  you can be sure that protests will be forthcoming from church leaders and groups.

It would not be right to do wrong in order to correct a  wrong. And responsible church people and groups cannot just stand by while injustice is perpetrated against  the chief justice even if the purpose is the promotion of the fight against corruption.

The strategy of the prosecution is coming out clearly even now. They will pound on the wealth of the Chief Justice. First, they will try to show that he has more wealth than is stated in his statement of assets.

Second, they will then present evidence purporting to show that he could not have honestly acquired  all that he actually possesses.

They will try to show that he has enriched himself dishonestly, and thus no longer deserves to sit as chief justice who must not only be above reproach but above suspicion.

They will try to reduce to tatters his image of uprightness so that it becomes untenable for him to continue holding the office of the highest magistrate of the land. Maybe that is the reason they are releasing so called evidence this early, so that the chief justice will be pressured to resign even before his trial by the Senate.

I do not object to the impeachment of the Chief Justice. But the way he was impeached and the haste with which the votes for his impeachment were collected do leave some doubts about the righteousness of the whole proceedings. Let us hope that no further doubts cloud the process from now on. 

All eyes will be on the trial which begins on January 16. But the prosecutors must realize that they will also be on trial. Most of all, may they realize that they will not be conducting the proceedings only under the gaze of the people but under the searching eyes of God himself.