by Diego Morra
Judging by the proceedings on the 20th and 21st days of the impeachment trial of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, it is becoming clearer that she is being abandoned by her own witnesses, with special disbursing officer (SDO) Gina Acosta and Office of the Vice President (OVP) assistant secretary Lemuel Ortonio fingering her as solely responsible for the disbursement of confidential funds (CFs) of both the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd), which is consistent with the testimony of the DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda.
To add more pickle to the salad, Sara’s DepEd spokesman who now wears the kibosh of defense counsel, Atty. Michael Wesley Poa, admitted before the Senate impeachment court that there weas no vault or any equipment of that sort, that held the acknowledgment receipts (ARs), invoices and other documents that prove the purported Sara informers were real living, walking, talking and snitching creatures. This violated the regulations of the Commission of Audit (COA) and proves Sara’s cavalier attitude in safeguarding important documents. Now, Sara is ensconced in a difficult situation and has gone completely YOYO, to use a neologism to mean “You’re On Your Own.”
To attempt at extricating himself from the Sara cul-de-sac, Poa disclosed that Sara was the expert in compartmentalizing tasks, functions and responsibilities at both the OVP and DepEd but he played a key role in institutionalizing this wrong management system. Poa knows this like the back of his hand, being Sara’s poo bah in two agencies, meaning he enjoys the trust and confidence of Sara, who must have adored him for his unctuous servility. We thought all along that lawyers can always say “no” when faced with the disastrous consequences of violating the Canon of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA) that calls for lawyers to tell the truth and never equivocate.
Poa violated the Canon by allowing himself to be used to compartmentalize the truth, craft justifications even while admitting he did not know anything about the CF, how it was used, who received the cash, medicines and food and the damn soil where tree seedlings were planted to be watered by successive cyclones. Freshman law students watching the proceedings would have laughed at the Poa antics and remind them that once, Poa dismissed the claims of Sara’s dirty billions by saying those billions confirmed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) were listed under the category “others.” This is as risible as the claim by another lawyer that the money simply “passed through,” indicating that both of them know little about accounting and auditing.
Poa feigned innocence about all these but took the cudgels for his boss to request that an audit query be sent to the queen of the OVP to reduce the battering of her petulant ego. A lawyer worth his salt had two options when faced with the demand to lie: Resign or be fired. He chose neither and so he is swimming in the quagmire of Sara’s creation. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) should take note of Poa’s statements and investigate him forthwith. Moreover, the IBP can also hold a parley with Attys. Sheila Sison and Kristine Ferrer on how to handle legal polemics using Aristotle’s logic. At this juncture, Sara’s keyboard warriors cannot mount a believable defense of their goddess. Their “public opinion” is as bad as the one described by Gore Vidal: “At any given moment, public opinion is a storm of superstition, misinformation and prejudice.”
Considering the testimonies of Col. Manaros Boransing II of the 1st Infantry Division and Col. Magtanggol Panopio of the 7th Division, the impeachment court can readily confirm that the four “certifications” issued by the military to the DepEd about the eight youth summits and 53 information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns were meant to attest to the mere participation of the DepEd, and not the funding of all these activities using the P15.54-million from the CF. These statements were consistent with the earlier testimonies of the two colonels before the Lower House justice panel.
Worse, they stressed that the IEC had been going on since 2002, long before Sara unfortunately became vice president. The defense could hardly dent the ramparts of the Boransing and Panopio testimonies, thus they relented on cross examining them, a fatal error since both military officials said they only issued the certifications at the behest of retired Maj. Gen. Nolasco Mempin, another Sara bureaucrat at DepEd. The military officers testified that not a single red centavo was received from the Sara, who was absent in all of the activities that she claimed the DepEd had bankrolled. Sara busted this one, and this is the result of the compartmentalized reality she has been promoting and the lie that she has been pushing. “Whoever runs with a lie will eventually trip with the truth. Nothing remains hidden forever,” Albert Einstein said.
Why is the defense going from bad to worse? The answer is not blowing in the wind; it is Sara as habagat personified, trying to sink the evidence with the trenchant chorus of her Davao City troll army, failing to drown out legitimate comments from citizens monitoring the trial, all because the funds pipeline was drenched with murky floodwaters. Sara’s hubris prevented her from understanding that she is, indeed in deep shit, in six-seven, not in seventh heaven, and marching towards perdition. With all the pieces of the Sara puzzle falling into the place, her defense should work to manufacture evidence to suit the narcissism of their client. The senators of the republic will never serve the public by giving Sara a pass. Many people still believe these lawmakers are shackled to the truth, save some who can never make any conversation clean.#
