By Alex Austria

Beyond asks University of the Philippines-Diliman professors about their take on the Chief Justice Corona impeachment case. The answers have been a multi-angular take on the issue, with some of them imparting suggestions to the students they teach today.

Expeditious process

“A done deal from the beginning” was how Professor Rowena Layador, Associate Professor at the Political Science Department of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, described the Corona impeachment case.

She said that it was an expeditiously done process by the Liberal party, of whom President Aquino was the flag-bearer of when he ran for president in 2010. Aquino opposed Corona ever since his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Saying that her opinion was merely her own “speculative” take on the subject, Layador does not want to preempt the decision of the Senate when asked about her expectations of its development.

However, for her it seems that the Senate might be divided on the issue because “not everyone is on board.” Layador also mentioned that the turn-out of the case depends on the performance of the prosecutors and the evidence they will present in the trial.

On Senator Trillanes’s declaration that the senators were now divided 11-2 in favor of impeachment, she again mentioned that this bit of information presented by Trillanes was pre-judging the Senate. “It’s not going to be taken seriously if this is the case. Why do we need to go through the process if we already know the outcome? It seems like the move for an impeachment trial is only for the sake of going through the process only, that’s it. “

Layador cited new reports that showed that the mood in the Senate appears to be otherwise. She mentioned that senators such as Senator Juan Ponce Enrile told representatives who want to pass evidence to the media before the trial to keep quiet and present it in the actual trial instead.

Other issues of importance

Professor Marivic Raquiza, Assistant Professor at the National College for Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), thinks that while the Corona impeachment case is a legitimate issue and concern of the people, there are other issues that should take the attention of the Executive Department and other policymakers—issues such as poverty and inequality. She said that while war was already breaking out in Syria today, Filipinos are still reluctant to come back to the country because there would be little or no jobs at all waiting for them at home.

Raquizas also mentioned the events that happened after Typhoon Sendong, highlighting the fact that the Executive Branch admitted that they were too preoccupied with politics to immediately address the disaster in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, two of the worst affected areas in the country.

“I don’t think [the impeachment case] should take residence over poverty and inequality, government programs, and the welfare of our people,” said Raquizas.

The One Percent Fighting

“When you think about it, it’s this one group of elite battling with the other group of elite. This is the one percent fighting. Where is the 99%?” she said, referring to the worldwide Occupy Movement. “So again, it boils down to bread and butter issues. This isn’t our fight, it’s the fight of the one percent,” she added.

Raquizas also said that the case, whether “rightly or wrongly”, will show a picture of a Philippines that is politically unstable.

“They’ll have an impression that the Philippines is great at bringing down presidents, now a Chief Justice, but what about strengthening institutions and making programs work?”

To their students

In light of the Corona impeachment case, both professors were asked what they wanted to tell their students and their students’ reactions to the Trillanes forum.

For her Political Science students, Layador said that they should practice democracy. “That means we go through institutions, and when we go through institutions, we respect the process. Let’s not expedite it, because if you do not respect the process, democracy will not flourish in this country,” Layador said.

“When we do not like decisions, we do not have to resort all the time to impeachment. Impeachment disrupts legislative work, and if you disrupt legislative work, it affects the whole country, the whole nation. It divides the country,” she added.

For Raquizas, she thinks that the forum enlightened their students and that they appreciated how Trillanes reached out to the NCPAG community. “They liked that he’s seriously studying the issue,” she said.

However, she and some of her students feel that Trillanes has already made up his mind on the impeachment case.

“One of the things that kind of surprised many, myself included, is when he said that his main yardstick for deciding on the case would be political acceptability over and above evidence,” she said.

Raquizas questioned this, especially since she subscribes to the belief that “what is popular is not necessarily right.”

“We believe that what should decide should be the merits of a case, based on the presentation of evidence,” she said.