IT is the American essayist Mark Twain who is usually credited for the famous aphorism: “History never repeats itself, but it rhymes.”
It is certainly rhyming with regard to the impeachment of the late chief justice Renato Corona in 2012, engineered by then-president Benigno Aquino III in order to save his clan’s Hacienda Luisita, and the attempts at a similar move today — by a president as incompetent and morally depraved as him — to remove Vice President Sara Duterte.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s plot, though, is more criminal than Aquino’s, as its aim is to thwart the will of the Filipino nation, to prevent Sara from assuming the presidency in 2028.
Following is a report on April 28 from the news website politico.com.ph. I have received similar reports:
“House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos has reportedly begun conducting an informal headcount ahead of the expected plenary deliberations on the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, Politiko learned.
An Iskooper within the House of Representatives, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Marcos has been allegedly spending the past few days calling congressmen, particularly those believed to support the impeachment complaint.
‘Parang nagpaparamdam siya sa mga congressmen. Parang naghe-head count,’ Iskooper said, describing the alleged outreach as the case nears plenary consideration.
The House committee on justice is expected to determine on Wednesday (April 29) whether there is probable cause in the impeachment complaints filed against Duterte. Members of the panel earlier expressed confidence that there is sufficient basis for the case to proceed to a Senate trial.
House leaders are eyeing to elevate the committee report to the plenary between May 4 and 11, 2026. At least 106 votes are required to transmit the case to the Senate.
The same Iskooper said that ahead of the plenary discussions, lawmakers may also be anticipating the release of projects listed under ‘For Later Release’ (FLR), which could partly explain Marcos’ reported outreach efforts.
‘Isa rin siguro sa reason kaya nagtatawag si Majo ay yung FLR. Baka ipingako na lalabas na,’ the Iskooper added.
These projects are reportedly lodged across several government agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, and Department of Health.
According to the Iskooper, the 2026 national budget earmarked P33 billion for farm-to-market roads under the agriculture department and P85 billion for the Basic Education Facilities Fund managed by the education department.
‘Inalis lang sa DPWH ang mga projects na ‘yan dahil sa controversy sa flood control projects pero tuloy pa rin iyan. Ang mga congressmen pa rin ang may say diyan,” the Iskooper said, expressing belief that the funds would eventually be released.
An additional P51.6 billion has been allocated for the Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program under the health department, but remains unused, allegedly because it has been reserved for lawmakers’ endorsement.
Before Congress adjourned on March 18, Speaker Faustino Dy 3rd had called out the Department of Budget and Management for delays in implementing government projects, saying these were urgently needed by the public.”
Now read my column written 14 years ago:
“On May 29, 2012 the Senate removed the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the head of the judicial branch of government which is co-equal with the executive and legislative branches, for failure to declare his dollar assets in his statement of assets and liabilities and net worth (SALN), which nobody in government really does.
They voted Corona guilty not because of the highest standards they felt the chief justice should meet. Rather, it was because of the lowest standards they felt they needed to comply with: It was the wish of President Aquino to remove Corona from that post, and they got rewarded for making his wish come true.
Rather than the evidence against Corona, it was the billions of pesos given the congressmen and senators in pork barrel funds and money through a new Aquino scheme called the Disbursement Acceleration Plan, it would be disclosed later, that made them vote Corona guilty. The five months during which we were regaled by then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile with his legal acumen and apparent impartiality was all for show.
The smokescreen that there wasn’t any 30 pieces of silver for the crucifixion of our republican system of three co-equal branches of government was the campaign of vilification against Corona, the likes of which we really hadn’t seen before,
It was a pyrrhic victory for Aquino though. Removing Chief Justice Renato Corona took five months to undertake, with his target refusing to resign before the trial started, which Aquino thought he would as Ombudsman Mercy Gutierrez did.
However, the impeachment, the vicious character assassination against Corona and the threat to remove another justice, Mariano del Castillo, was a criminal purpose: to intimidate the court to rule for Aquino in the case of his family’s Hacienda Luisita by decapitating its head and replace him with someone who would do the president’s bidding.
In April 2012, at the height of the impeachment trial, the court ruled with finality that the sugar hacienda had implemented a bogus land reform. It was ordered to distribute its vast estate to its farmer-workers, and for them to be compensated a tenth of the cost that his appointee Lourdes Sereno, who replaced Corona, had propounded.
Even if Aquino had proven by some miracle to manage the country well after May 2012 — which he didn’t — his attack on the Supreme Court, if only we had a patriotic and independent Congress and armed forces, should have been enough to remove him from power.
Never has a Philippine president schemed and mobilized illegally everything under his control as chief executive to attack the head of an equal branch of government.
What kind of country have we become that the bribery to convict Corona had been exposed, yet we have not as a nation moved to correct such injustice? We have swept this colossal scandal under the rug.
Philippine historians in the future will be astonished how Aquino was able to mobilize and mesmerize institutions, which theoretically are our bastions of democracy, to attack Corona.
I’ve never seen such a vicious demonization campaign against an individual who stood his ground. Aquino gave new meaning to that term ‘throw everything but the kitchen sink’; he threw everything against the Chief Justice, from the petty to the cruel.”
The difference between Corona’s and Sara’s cases is that this time, the latter would survive to defeat Marcos’ impeachment conspiracy.. Unlike Corona, Sara has developed a charisma, initially something that had rubbed off from her father, but which now she has built for herself that even fake pollsters won’t be able to contest her immense popularity with Filipinos. Corona, on the other hand, had no charisma or popularity.
More importantly, Corona was appointed to the Supreme Court, and then as its chief justice by one person, the president. Sara on the other hand was “appointed,” voted as vice president by 32 million Filipinos, or 61.5 percent of all votes, the largest mandate ever given to any Filipino candidate, a political fact that cannot simply be brushed aside in any attempt to remove her from office.
Marcos is playing with fire in his plot to prevent Sara from becoming president in 2028. I’m quite certain her impeachment will create such a tsunami of outrage and protest that [something missing here!!!] will by this administration.
Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
X: @bobitiglao
Website: www.rigobertotiglao.com