The Corona Impeachment Trial: Playground Brawl

The ongoing word war between President Noynoy Aquino and Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona continued over the weekend, and it's looking more like a playground brawl with each passing day.

While President Aquino has been unrelenting in his scathing criticisms against the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice has been no less crass, as he questioned the President's mental capacity by asking the President to make public his psychological records. Corona was likely referring to the 2010 election issue wherein an alleged psychological analysis of the President was released. However, this report has long been dismissed as bogus, so I'm not sure why Corona is bringing up the issue.


Perhaps it would have been better for the Chief Justice to have held his peace, although I don't blame him for hitting back at the President. Still, as Chief Justice, Corona demonstrated behavior unbecoming as one of the highest-ranking government officials when he hit the President with the psychological analysis rap.

At the same time, the President has shown extreme arrogance when, in response for both the President and the Chief Justice to stop their word war, the President refused to do so, claiming that he was speaking for the majority of the people. I think the popularity polls have gone to the President's head; they're making him think that he has the right to do whatever he pleases. What he forgets, though, is that relentlessly hammering away at the Chief Justice's supposed guilt, he may trigger a sympathy wave for Corona; it's possible that all the President's ranting will reach supersaturation, desensitizing people.

Furthermore, there appears to be a change in the rhetoric surrounding the impeachment trial. Originally, back in December, when Corona was impeached, Aquino apologist William Esposo castigated Corona for dragging the judiciary branch of government into the impeachment issue, and argued that only Corona was the issue, not the judiciary. However, the President himself included the judiciary in his refusal to shut up on the impeachment, saying, "He (Corona) is the face of what we have been fighting for, which is to reform the judicial system in the country."

The impeachment trial has taken a dangerous turn, as it appears that the principal figures involved aren't shy about burning everything in their path in order to get at each other. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, and the trial can continue on more stable ground.