Covering the Impeachment Missing: The Voice of the People
By John Reiner M. Antiquerra and Kathryn Roja G. Raymundo
Published in PJR Reports, March-April 2012
The impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, which began on Jan. 16, was practically the story of the first quarter.
It was the first time a Chief Justice had ever been impeached and the event and process was in that sense historic. But even more importantly, because an impeachment is also a means for the public to exact accountability from its officials, it needs sustained coverage so the citizenry can monitor the process. Because the judiciary compared to such other branches of government as the Legislature and the Presidency is much less routinely covered by the press, impeachment trials, as was demonstrated during the impeachment of then President Joseph Estrada in 2000-2001, also help citizens understand how the courts and the Philippine legal system work.
In apparent awareness of the trial’s significance, the major networks and broadsheets as well as online news sites understandably invested resources in its coverage by sending multiple news teams to cover both the trial and related events.
PJR Reports monitored four major networks which covered the trial live: Chief Justice on Trial (ABS-CBN News Channel/ABS-CBN 2), C.J. Corona: Ang Paglilitis (C.J. Corona: The Trial, Aksyon TV/TV5), The Chief Justice on Trial (GMA News TV/GMA-7), and The Corona Impeachment Trial (Solar TV News) on the first week of the Senate impeachment hearing (Jan. 16 to Jan. 19).
PJRR observed a tendency to focus on trivial matters, lack of context in the reporting, and the seeming absence of any preparation among some anchors and reporters the networks fielded. Even more importantly, however, and oddly for an event that’s more political than legal, the people’s voice was hardly heard in much of the coverage.
The first week of the impeachment trial was the prosecution’s presentation of its case re Article II of the eight Articles of Impeachment: “Respondent committed culpable violation of the Constitution and/or betrayed the public trust when he failed to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) as required under Sec. 17, Art. XI of the 1987 Constitution.” The witnesses presented included Supreme Court Clerk of Court Enriqueta Vidal and the registers of deeds from various areas where Corona allegedly has properties undisclosed in his SALN.
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