There have already been two rather sensational revelations connected with two court cases.

One was about the supposed  offer to  former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos to come up with a certain amount of money for Judge Tupas for the dismissal of his pending case before the  Pasay judge.

The other was the alleged revelation of Chief Justice Renato Corona’s defense counsel, Serafin Cuevas,  to the effect that the latter was offered by a person suspected to be a Malacanang emissary to withdraw as defenese counsel of the CJ in exchange for the dropping of the case against former NBI chief Gatdula (both Cuevas and Gatdula are members of the Iglesia ni Cristo).

Judge Tupas denied the accusation of Abalos, while Cuevas denied that he made the allegation attributed to him.

It seems that Abalos later denied accusing Judge Tupas himself of asking for the bribe.

At the end, we do not know what the truth is, but suspicions now cloud both court proceedings.

In our country and in the world today, truth is no longer easy to come by. We bishops in the CBCP have become wary of the press, knowing that the press reports so many falsehoods. 

During the recent CBCP meeting, a newspaper reported what the CBCP president was supposed to have said in a certain interview.

But Archbishop Palma categorically denied having given any interview. When  I was bishop of Caloocan, a newspaper blared in its front page that the CBCP scolded me. But the there was nothing in the body of the report which indicated any such thing.

But aside from publishing such patent falsehoods,  newspapers often give a slant or a twist to reports that would favor some vested interests. This is done especially by newsmen or journalists of the AC/DC (attack, collect/defend, collect ) variety, the practitioners of envelopmental  journalism.

Unfortunately, it has become true that in media as in many other aspects of modern life, there are many worshippers of mammon (money).

Because money has become the prime consideration for many in the media (though there are still many very dedicated and truthful journalists, thank God), the first consideration in publishing or writing anything is whether it is news or not, and not whether it is true or not.

The news gets money, the truth may not attract money at all. So, reporters tend to write what is “negative, destructive, and sensational,”  (in the words of a veteran journalist) and not necessarily what is true.

It is easier to write about the negative, destructive, and sensational because you can even invent it, while you cannot invent the truth; you can only discover it. And discovering the truth requires diligent research and investigation.

The truth is the responsibility of all of us, whether we are the protagonists involved in a certain case or whether we are in the media.  It is the truth we must search for, and  must be the basis of our decisions or actions.

Otherwise, we base our decisions or actions on falsehood or what is doubtful, and thus on shifting sand.  We must seek to be makatotohanan (friends of the truth), and we should strive to be magkatoto  (friends whose friendship is based on the truth) if we are to live in true peace with each other.

That is why in the Corona impeachment trial, what is important is to find out the truth. If for this reason alone, that our people have become very interested in knowing what the truth is, the pains of the Corona trial are worth it.