Of course, it started when the Chief Justice was impeached for lying in his SALN among other things. Now they want to perpetuate the lies by presenting a witness whose age is enough reason for Ninoy killers to get executive clemency. Perhaps they thought that the system will not incarcerate a 70 year old for perjury. Or perhaps they know we cannot retrieve checks paid out more than 20 years ago.
Senator Vilma Santos revealed how he would vote when he said the witness was credible. We know how Miriam would vote too when she swooned over the anime-hairdo of another witness. Wah?!
The septuagenarian who claims to have bought CJ’s properties is the kind of witness that the de campanillas like Cuevas would shred. This witness could have brought out the best in Cuevas during a cross. Sayang they are on the same side.
What appalls me is the defense’s lie (or false confidence) in claiming that the witness stood out as a very credible witness. Together with Senator Vilma Santos, they say that it is usual for Filipinos not to immediately transfer a title to their names. They cite cases of grandfathers selling their land to grandsons and the ‘buyers’ taking their time in transferring the titles to their names. But they fail to say (and the prosecutors again failed to counter) that these people, despite the on-transfer of title, still keep the land in the family. That’s why they don’t bother at all. In the buyer of CJ’s land, his failure raises suspicion of a simulated sale. It is as if the lots are still in CJ’s family.
Conspiracy theories about a simulated sale, with the CJ not fully confident that the buyer-poseur will not transfer the title that’s why the sale effectively remains un-notarized, are easier to swallow. This time, Occam’s razor does not favor the defense.
