My Prayers Were Answered

Until late last night, I was not sure if the prosecution had the numbers to convict Renato Corona. I was busy coaching my players competing in the Philippine National Game. I frantically texted some friends to ask if we had the numbers, they replied, yes. I still did not believe them and snuck out several times to listen to each verdict. When the count went past the 3-2 result, I knew Corona will be found guilty. What surprised me is the final count, 20-3. The expected holdouts stuck to their stands. Lapid, Revilla and Villar surprised me. Lapid showed how he used on common sense better than Joker, Miriam and Marcos.

I must commend the "grand old statesman" of the senate, Senate Pres. Juan Ponce Enrile fairly and justly managed the impeachment from start to finish. He even delivered the coup de grace and will leave a legacy he can truly be proud of. One after the other, senator judges used the case of Delsa Flores. It's as if the heavens sent each senator an email of my humble request. Twenty out of twenty-three heeded my prayers. Equal protection of the law was applied. A big fish was caught and convicted because of his arrogance and his self-serving interpretation of an outdated law. Corona was betrayed by his arrogance. After his own admission, he sealed his own fate. All the drama and the theatrics was not able to save him.

Corona is finally convicted. His illegitimate reign as the Supreme Court Chief Justice is over. He not only disgraced himself but he is the first chief justice to be removed from office. He will lose his job and his retirement benefits. He will never work in government again. He should have resigned instead of dragging the entire judiciary and using it to defend himself. He will lose his simple life of P15,000 dinners, his P25,000 Barong Tagalogs and his P100,000 Christmas gifts. Even his traveling privileges will be taken away. PAL no longer needs to cozy up to him. Perhaps, his wife Cristina will truly reconcile with her relatives and not use them as props for her PR stunts. Corona will now have all the time in the world to dissect what happened to him. He can now look back and hopefully realize that his position and his power to interpret the law to use to serve his purpose wrong. Maybe he would regret ever wanting to be chief justice despite his obvious lack of court service. 

I am not kicking a man when he is down even if he deserves it. I'm simply pointing out why he is where he is now, why things had to happen and why his career ended this way. I can now sleep soundly at night knowing that Lady Justice is blind again. No discrimination between rich and poor and the law will be equally applied. We just sent the justices a strong message, they can be made accountable. My prayers were answered.