ITS patience stretched to the limit by the continuing disrespect of House prosecutors Reps. Niel Tupas and Romero Quimbo, the Senate impeachment court led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and other irate senators lowered the boom on the prosecutors and served them stern warning to stop trying the case in public.

The comeuppance of the House prosecutors came after repeated and brazen disrespect of the impeachment court.

The bone of contention centered on a press conference conducted by both Tupas and Quimbo where they revealed that the Land Registration Authority recorded 45 properties allegedly owned by Chief Justice Renato Corona and his immediate family. 

Confronted in open court, Tupas flatly denied they were the source of the document, but the LRA. Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada stressed his question: Who released the list to the media?

Reporter confronts Quimbo

In a press conference conducted by Quimbo, he was confronted directly by a reporter who accused him of releasing to the media the list of alleged 45 properties.

Under intense questioning from Sen. Chiz Escudero, Tupas admitted they had presented only 24 properties and  planned a few more, but not totalling 45.

Sen. Gringo Honasan asked for more strict “sanctions” on the repeated violations by the House prosecutors of Senate rules prohibiting public discussion of evidence before they are accepted in evidence.

Honasan said, “It seems the trial is proceeding faster in the trial (by publicity) outside the courtroom than inside the court.”

Under pressure

Senator Escudero said the premature disclosure by the House prosecutors of evidence would put the Senate under public pressure to vote one way or the other based on evidence released to media but rendered inadmissible as evidence later.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III called for a hasty 15-minute recess.

Senator Estrada later took the floor to say that during the break he just saw television footage showing Mr. Tupas waving a list to media of the alleged 45 properties.  Estrada practically called Tupas a liar.  Tupas said the list he was shown waving was not the list of alleged 45 properties.

Estrada said, “we need to be fair in this court.  Let us not lie.

Senator Enrile cut short the debate by saying, “Aside from being politicians, we must remember that we are still agents of the court and are bound by standards of ethical behavior,” a virtual reprimand of Tupas.

Caught in cookie jar

At this point I remembered a story my grade school teacher loved to tell.

A particularly naughty little boy with a healthy appetite was told by his mother not to eat the freshly baked cookies in a jar until she returned from the grocery store.   As soon as she left, the little boy opened the cookie jar and was on his way to getting a cookie when he heard his mother’s footsteps.

The little boy tried to remove his hand quickly from the jar, but he could not without letting go of the cookie first.  He hesitated for a moment, unwilling to let go of the cookie, and was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Trial by publicity

The eminent constitutional law expert Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a constant resource person of radio and television programs, has made the perceptive observation that the trial is being litigated both in the Senate and Plaza Miranda, that storied plaza in front of Quiapo Church where political rallies were held before media took over as the main political forum.

In a previous hearing, Senator Arroyo called the attention of the court that the House prosecutors’ spokespersons may be dangerously flaunting impeachment rules prohibiting discussing the merits outside the court.  Arroyo cited the immediate leakage to the press of the income tax returns of the Corona family even before they could be offered and admitted as evidence.

Elusive guilt

The defense panel said they did not do it.  So did Chief House Prosecutor Tupas.  He was partly right and totally  misleading.  His spokespersons, particularly Rep. Quimbo, were identified by reporters as responsible for leaking the copies to the press.

Arroyo stressed that documents marked as possible evidence were not considered public records yet and their confidentiality must be zealously guarded to protect the privacy rights of the accused.

Senate President Enrile gently reminded the litigants to refrain from public discussion because outside the court  people were not under oath, not even the House prosecutors.

Culture of impunity

No sooner had he said this than the House spokespersons were caught on camera conducting a media briefing.  They were obviously piling up brownie points before the Plaza Miranda crowd.  At this point I shut off the TV and my kids, all adults, vigorously objected in the inimitable style of Justice Cuevas. 

I said I did not want them to develop a culture of impunity watching the House spokespersons brazenly violating Senate rules after just being reprimanded in open court.

‘Ethical conduct’

“We must behave in accordance with the ethics of our profession and observe the norms of ethic conduct that is required of us as lawyers of this country,” Enrile said.

“So ordered,” he said, banging the gavel for emphasis.

Parental guidance is definitely needed now that the avenging angels waging battles for high ethical standards in government have themselves become what they are seeking to obliterate from the face of this earth.