Persecuting the Prosecution

The charges of incompetence against the prosecution are at best, exaggerated, and at worst, suspicious. Sure, Cong. Sergio Apostol was clumsy and comic; he does not speak the sleek polished English of his counterpart Sigfrid Fortun. Cong. Roan Libarios was tense and taut; he does not exude the confidence of an Estelito Mendoza. Cong. Salacnib Baterina's grammar was not quite as impeccable as Andres Narvasas. All three's combined legal skills cannot seem to match that of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who makes you wonder whether he is sitting as a judge or is lawyering for the accused. Granted: the Prosecutors are not as smooth and savvy as the Defense counsels. But just because they have thick accents and awkward manners does not mean they were inept. All their opening statements were well crafted introductions to the battery of evidence that they intend to present. The damning questions were raised: How can a corporation with P62 thousand paid-up capital acquire a property worth P142 million? If the Wack-Wack house is not Laarnis, why do the bedrooms in the architectural plan bear her sons and daughter's name? If the P200 million was really intended for the Muslim scholars, why were the checks not named for the foundation? Why did Ricaforte have to use six separate checks if their intended recipient was one and the same? Who is Jose Valhalla? More than the controversy on who qualifies as an adverse or hostile witness, these are the questions that are crying out for answers. Contrast this with the sorry performance of the defense: Former Chief Justice Andres Narvasa demonstrated why he should stick to studying SCRAs instead of Shakespeare when he compared Estrada to Julius Ceasar. Because of his ill-understanding of the play, Narvasa's lame analogies crumbled like chalk. Estelito Mendoza, for all his public speaking skills, was reduced to destroying Gov. Luis Singson's credibility - a tired and futile ploy - and to admitting that as a child, even before he became a lawyer, he was already a liar. Despite decades of litigation work, the defense was unable to respond to the damaging questions propounded in the prosecution's opening statements. Libarios may have appeared jittery and confused on the first day but let no one forget that he made Gen. Roberto Lastimoso testify that, indeed, Mr.Estrada instructed him during a meeting to go easy on jueteng. The next day, Libarios redeemed himself by stressing the important point that Lastimoso's memorandum against jueteng was issued before his meeting with Estrada. Without this crucial clarification, the defense would have gone away establishing Lastimoso's inconsistency. For if the memorandum was issued after the meeting, then the defense would have shown how odd it was for Lastimoso, after being told to stop going after jueteng, to order the police to do the opposite. The Prosecutions presentation of the testimony of surprise witness Emma Lim cemented the charges of Singson. Not only did Emma Lim give a coherent and detailed narrative of how she collected jueteng money from Jinggoy Estrada, Anton Prieto, and Bong Pineda, she came up with tangible bank documents to back up her claims. If Jinggoy never gave any jueteng pay-off to Lim, where did she get the money to deposit at the bank? How could she have possessed marked deposit slips if she did not deposit anything? Presented with a barrage of documentary evidence, Atty. Flaminiano of the defense was reduced to muttering silly jokes. The Prosecution's small shortcomings, which have to do less with substance than with style, are being hyped up to an overkill. The skills of the defense team, on the other hand, are being disproportionately stretched. The Prosecution needs improvement in many aspects, sure. They should get their act together, be more prepared in their logistics, and brush up on their oratory. But to suggest that the President just might get acquitted because of the unjustified but easily believable perception that the Prosecution is grossly incompetent sounds suspiciously like a diversionary psywar tactic. Desperate to stay in power, Mr. Estrada and his cohorts are attempting to condition the people into accepting an eventual acquittal by making it appear that his exoneration will be the fault of the Prosecutors. The people, in turn, should blame them, not him, as he goes on to finish his constitutionally mandated term in the year 2004. It has apparently not dawned on Mr. Estrada that nothing less than proof of his innocence - beyond reasonable doubt - can reclaim for him the moral ascendancy that he needs to lead this oft-besieged nation for the next four years. Mr. Estrada and his psywar strategists need to be reminded that the President must not only be exculpated by the Senate. Far more important than the Senate's is the verdict of the court of public opinion. And in that court, there will be no bad Prosecutors to blame.

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