Here’s what Sen. Chiz Escudero told the prosecution team headed by Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, Jr. the first time they brought the matter of Chief Justice Renato Corona’s alleged ownership of a 300-square-meter unit at the Bellagio in Taguig City and some other real estate properties as well as other alleged “proofs” of his misdeeds days before the start of the impeachment trial:

“I would call on both sides to exercise prudence when it comes to these things. It is better to be on the safe side than to try to stretch the meaning of the provisions of the law whether it suits you or not. Section 18 of the Senate Rules on Impeachment specifically prohibits prosecutors, senator-judges, the person being impeached, their counsels, and witness from making any comments and disclosures in public pertaining to the merits of a pending impeachment trial..The impeachment court is the proper venue to present the case not anywhere else..”

Escudero’s admonition was reinforced by Sen. Ping Lacson who described Tupas’ action of disclosing evidence to media as “undisciplined”.  “If we allow such undisciplined public presentation of evidence by any party to continue, in utter disregard of the ethics of their legal profession,” Lacson advised, “ the Senate may lose control of the situation, and I am certain it will damage not just the Senate as an impeachment court but the sacredness of the whole impeachment process as well.”

How true. In fact, the spate of unwarranted disclosures, especially on the  part of the prosecution, in the guise of “educating the public” has led some  sectors to comment that if we go by their assertions “Chief Justice Corona is  already guilty on all charges...not found in the Articles of Impeachment (AoI)..” What makes this “trial by publicity” even more vicious and corrosive is the fact that the prosecution has even resorted to lies and distortions to drive their point. No less than Sen. Jinggoy Estrada fumed when Tupas denied it was his team who prematurely disclosed the alleged  ownership of Corona of 45 real estate properties when it is now clear from video footages and news reports that it was him and Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo who really brought the issue to fore. Now, after almost a month of fishing for evidence, the prosecution could only present 24 such properties, and this is a big question mark may not stand  the glare of judicial  scrutiny as evidences to prove Corona’s guilt if at all.

This is trial by publicity, pure and simple, which is turbo-charged no less by Malacanang itself in a deliberate, vain and high-stakes  bid to bring Corona and, as some senior administration officials have openly admitted, the SC to heel. These guys have left no stone unturned and have mobilized all their resources,  including their assets in media and the social networks, to drive public opinion to their side. In the process, they may have actually compromised not just the purity of their Daang Matuwid mantra but the impartiality of the senator-judges themselves who were sworn to “do justice by every man as the evidence and their consciences see fit”.

As Lacson noted, these “revelations” may have compromised the “sacredness of the whole impeachment process.” It is very possible that if this barrage of publicity is left virtually unchecked, the whole impeachment proceedings maybe declared a “mistrial” and how!!! That will truly be condemnable.

Time and again the courts, here and abroad, have held that “trial by  publicity” punctuated by unusual media coverage of a case and, decidedly,  unwarranted issuances, spinning by advocates on both sides of a case or, worse, intervention by external forces amounts to a denial of due process.

No  less than the US Supreme Court in three celebrated cases have struck down  convictions of the accused after finding that the trial was attended by  inordinate media focus amounting to hysteria bordering on indoctrination.        

In  the Philippines, a case filed  by then defendants colonel Eduardo Martelino and co-accused in the celebrated “Jabidah Massacre” were able to convince the SC in a well-written ruling penned by CJ Fred Ruiz Castro that they could not get a “fair and impartial trial” in their court-martial case precisely because it has become such a “celebrated and highly politicized” trial which was even being used in the runup to the 1969 presidential elections at that time.   

If the Senate impeachment court and the advocates on both sides of the divide, especially the House prosecution team and its principal, P. Noy, do not watch out, the Corona impeachment trial may well be on its way to being declared a mistrial. That will truly be a most tragic and condemnable conclusion to this high-stakes drama. SAYANG !!!!