Coronanovella: The Season Finale / The Results Show

Predictions 

There had been much speculation as to who will vote for whom, or for a conviction or an acquittal. For a period of time, I keep hearing about 6 uncertain senators. 

I have also heard people saying that it would likely be an acquittal since only 8 was needed to acquit and 16 was needed to convict, the odds are against it they said. Someone I know, who is a top bank executive, said that everyone around (him/her) kept saying that it would be an acquittal. 

Yesterday, my brother and I were discussing how we thought each senator was going to vote. We thought 7 would likely acquit Corona: Miriam, Arroyo, Bong Bong, Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, Villar and Loren – based on the senators court behavior and affiliation to GMA. We thought that the 6 uncertain senators were: Chiz, Sotto, Honasan, Estrada, Enrile, and Pimentel. And, the remaining senators, we thought of would be voting for a conviction – also based on their court behavior as well as their alliance to Pnoy. 

While I wasn’t as confident with my prediction, I was thinking that Corona would be impeached based on:

1. Some of the senators are reelectionists (and would likely vote based on public opinion)
2. Corona’s guilty looking behavior (walked out, hospitalization and admittance of $2.4M and P80M)
3. Farinas’ closing argument, which perfectly encapsulated the points of the prosecution, poked holes in Corona’s flimsy explanations and superbly conveyed all of it in straightforward Tagalog (none of those forced trying-to-be-deep-Tagalog diatribes from people who were never really comfortable in the language to begin with). After that closing by Farinas, I don’t know how any reelectionist could risk looking like a tool, voting to acquit when it’s so clear that Corona had all these unexplained wealth that he really could only explain through his “palusots”. 

I am glad to know that I am, after all, a better political analyst than those bank executives (or maybe, I just got lucky, who knows?). 

Surprising Landslide

I had thought that maybe the undecided senators would be divided for the prosecution and the defense or that the votes would be close, or that there would be some suspense like how it happens in your average reality TV show, but apparently, after all the ruckus, the result was a landslide for conviction. 

Monday night some analyst were saying that things could be a "19 vs. 4" scenario, with some analysts identifying Bong Revilla and Lito Lapid as swing votes.  This was the first time I’ve heard that these Lakas-Kampi boys would go against GMA’s Corona. 

Those who voted to acquit, Miriam, Bong Bong and Arroyo, are not reelectionist and have no need to heed public opinion.

All I can say for Miriam, she can be entertaining but on some occasions her exploding voice can be quite irritating. I felt like doing an Aguirre while watching her (more than) 2 minute explanation.  There is no doubt about her talent as a lawyer and as a judge. The problem lies when it’s obvious that she’s operating under an obvious bias. I don’t know how she can excuse her behavior and coat it under the guise of technicalities of the law that she says she is an expert of since she has been an ROTC judge. 

As for Bong Revilla, anytime he opens his mouth, I just feel an overwhelming sense of annoyance. He has never endeared himself to me, not when he was roasting Hayden on those leaked videos, (No, I don’t like Hayden but I also don’t think the videos merited that much senate attention. He doesn't even know how to pick a decent issue on which to grandstand on) and not on this trial. In addition, every time he opens his mouth, I am not convinced of any impressive level of intelligence. All I can sense is his ability to half-act things. He expressed his hardship today in his explaination, he says "napakahirap" with regards to his vote but that “alang alang sa pagkakaisa at paghilom ng ating bayan”, he votes to convict. What does that even mean? What a lame attempt to use Tagalog to make his decision sound substantial and deep. All he said was that he had a hard time but will vote to convict for the sake of the country’s unity and healing. So, is he saying that he wanted to vote otherwise but only voted to convict for the sake of the country’s unity and healing? Does that even make sense, really? So, you want to acquit a Supreme Court justice who didn't file $2.4M and P80M in his SALN because that's what you really wanted to do, and you are having such a hard time, but you will convict him instead just for the sake of the nation? Say, what?!

Lito Lapid, meanwhile was just hilarious. I don’t know if that was his insecurity talking or if it was some clever ploy to endear himself to the masses or maybe it was both. He emphasized his inability to understand English, his high school diploma and his inability to understand the law. Yet, he says he was to judge a man like Corona, who is more educated than him. Hmm, I don’t know about you but he just mentioned all the reasons why he was incapable of judging the case or any case for that matter. If he couldn't understand English, how could he have understood half of what was being said in the trial? And, if he didn’t know anything about the law, how could he have understood the merits of both the prosecution and the defense? For that matter, how could he even do his job as a senator, if he doesn’t understand or know anything about law? But hey, he voted to convict since he said this is because he understood the case based on Farinas’ closing argument. 

As for Villar, I would have probably respected him more (not that I do respect him, as I once had an encounter with him that left a really bad taste on my mouth), if he had voted to acquit and didn’t just vote with the majority, just because he wants to be popular? Or didn't want to be left out? Or because his wife would be running in the next senate elections? After all, isn’t he a sort of closeted GMA ally? He should have just stuck with his loyalties or perhaps, he really has none (the virtue of loyalty, that is), who knows?

As for the reelectionists, they voted based on public opinion and hey, why did we even doubt that they would have done otherwise? 

And so, that closes the chapter of the 40+ days of the Coronanovella. Will we get a second season through a rumored Supreme Court appeal? I hope not. 

The country has survived the impeachment. Let’s just let it remain intact for now. Please.

As JPE has said "We must learn from this episode". I truly hope we did.