Manuel Quezon III

• Monday?s Caucus: Like the Second Envelope?
  
  Tomorrow, this issue will be at the forefront — see Prosecution finds Corona’s ‘$700,000 bank account’: In a supplemental request submitted to the Senate impeachment court on Friday, February 3, the prosecution attached photocopies of the supposed PSBank documents on the accounts of ?Renato Coronado Corona.? The $700,000 deposited in account number 08919100037-3 is supposedly [...]
  
  
• The question of the public pulse
  
  Style over substance. The best defense, as they say, is a good offense. And so, the other day, by way of former Senator Francisco “Kit” Tatad came something remarkable. Referring to public opinion, he opined, On the whole, nagbabago. Nakikita na mukhang ang perception ng bayan yung sympathy sa prosecution mukhang nalilipat kay Corona. In [...]
  
  
• The burden of proof shifts to the Defense*
  
  Charles Laughton in the film, “Witness for the Prosecution.” *Figuratively speaking: as @Katarungan2010 pointed out on Twitter, [T]he burden of proof always rests on the prosec. Otherwise, it violates the Consti. What shifts is burden of evidence. And prima facie evidence isn’t automatic. Prosec must first show that the elements required by the applicable law [...]
  
  
• Some Readings as the Constitution turns 25
  
  ?[T]he Constitution is not, and should not be, an idol under strict taboos. It is not, and should not be, a strait-jacket for the growing and developing nation which it was made to serve. The Constitution itself outlines the procedure for its own amendment, and it thus expressly devoted to the principle that it is neither inviolable nor permanent, but a working instrument to secure the general welfare of the people.
  
  
• The fate of Article II: ?A threshold issue?
  
  “None So Blind As Those Who Won’t See,” editorial cartoon, The Judge, November 19, 1881 Yesterday, the much-awaited first appearance of Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago in the impeachment proceedings finally occurred. First, she weighed in with her thoughts on the nature of impeachment: THE PRESIDING OFFICER. The Lady Senator from Iloilo. SEN. DEFENSOR SANTIAGO. Thank [...]
  
  



• The Second Article: Fishing Expedition or Systematic Investigation?
  
  Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. Now that evidence on Article II in Chief Justice Corona’s impeachment trial is being presented, the defense wants it dismissed out of hand… This is the Second of the Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Renato C. Corona: II. RESPONDENT COMMITTED CULPABLE VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION AND/OR BETRAYED THE PUBLIC [...]
  
  
• The Nature of the Beast: Sui Generis
  
  You don’t need Sherlock for this one. sui generisadjectiveunique: the sui generis nature of animals.ORIGIN Latin, literally ?of its own kind.? The 1987 Constitution, in Article XI, Accountabilty of Public Officers, includes the following: SECTION 2. The President, the Vice-President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman [...]
  
  
• He said, She said, and Gravitas
  
  The old Senate session hall, now being restored, as photographed by Roy de Guzman. Among its features is a frieze with sculptures of the great lawmakers and lawgivers of history: North Wall Hammurabi, Moses, Ramesses the Great, Li Si, Augustus Caesar, Sir William Blackstone; South Wall Solon (Athenian Statesman), Averroes, Justinian, Manu, Charlemagne, Hugo Grotius, [...]
  
  
• Term of the Day: Duplicate Original
  
  “A View of the Tryal of Warren Hastings Esqr. before the court of peers in Westminster Hall on an impeachment delivered at the bar of the House of Lords by the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament Assembled,” February 13,1788 The Corona impeachment trial continues. The quotable quotes of the Senate President continue: today’s was [...]
  
  
• The Senate and the People of the Philippines
  
  Cicero denounces Cataline, by Cesare Maccari The Corona impeachment trial continues. If impeachment as a process harks back to the House of Lords, the British Parliament, by way of the Congress of the United States, then yesterday’s opening of the impeachment trial was, itself, suffused with the history, and traditions, of legislatures of the past: [...]