Deja Vu.

For want of anything good to see on TV, we've been watching the impeachment trial of CJ R. Corona lately. On its first day, I tuned it to cable TV 24 (GMA) wherein the guest analysts were former Dean of Law R. Pangalangan and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban.

The legal duo's analysis of the proceedings were superb; both were able to expound on the trial/process in a way a layman could relate to, even though both used English and a smattering of Tagalog in the discussion.

Yesterday's hearing was a waste of time; no witness and evidence were presented and accepted. But points were raised by the prosecution and Senator-Judges Defensor-Santiago and Peter A. Cayetano.

From what I understood about it, the prosecution wanted the Presiding Officer to be more liberal in its rulings, e.g (specifically regarding the Defense's objection that the "ill gotten wealth" charge be dismissed from the articles of impeachment). Prosecutor Tupaz pointed out that the impeachment trial is unique, it is not a criminal nor a civil trial, and the rules in these two types of cased must not apply to an impeachment proceeding.

Defensor-Santiago, despite her own catering to television, made a good point when she said that the more evidence presented and accepted, the better the trial and outcome would be, since the people would be given everything it ought to know. She even made comparison to the impeachment trial of Estrada wherein the second envelope was concealed by the senator-judges which led to prosecution walk-out and the ultimate EDSA 2 and ouster of Erap.

Defensor-Santiago said that if evidence would be suppressed, the people might think that Corona is hiding something, much like what happened in the Erap impeachment.

Cayetano, likewise, seconded the opinion of Santiago for the acceptance of more evidences.

Enrile was chided by the prosecution and asked to be more liberal in its rulings, whence the presiding officer went into a soft tirade, asking Tupaz, "would you like me to allow misleading questions, etc?" and asked his fellow senator-judges to tell him how liberal they would want him to be.

Villar came to Enrile's defense, and said he was happy with Enrile's performance as presiding officer.

I agree with the clamor to use more Tagalog in this impeachment proceedings, so that more people would understand what's going on. We expect that English would be used more, but then the prosecutors, defense and judges should exert more effort to interject the use of Tagalog.

Better yet, there should be a split-screen coverage wherein the proceeding would be translated into Tagalog in "real time," so that whatever is being said will be seen on screen in the vernacular. It would be akin to a sign language being used simultaneously during a televised mass.

If Tagalog were utilized, more Filipinos would become interested in following the impeachment trial.