Netizens twit Kapunan on sneakers

MANILA, Philippines — From humorous and amusing questions on the impeachment trial, netizens, mostly from the camp of Vice President Sara Duterte, have also noticed prosecution lawyer Lorna Kapunan’s pair of sneakers.

“Desperate moves from a desperate defense camp. These trolls have been very loud. They have been hitting the private prosecutors. Even my rubber shoes – they might say these are the product of impeachment,” Kapunan said yesterday in a press briefing.

Sneaker enthusiasts have observed that the lawyer has been wearing pricey pairs of rubber shoes alternately, almost always matching her attire, and that these sneakers are not just your ordinary ones but are actually “limited edition.”

These buffs noticed Kapunan wear four pairs of comfortable shoes, with prices at as much as $2,500 or P152,0000, depending on the brand – Gucci, Balenciaga, Golden Goose and On Cloud.

In the same conference, Kapunan likewise observed the emergence of what she calls comparison between the “maleta boys” of officials of the executive department allegedly involved in the flood control scam, now evolving into “duffle bag” guys.

“Maleta boys have been the fashion nowadays isn’t it? Now, they’re calling us duffle bags,” she said.

“Now, they might say I gave prosecution spokesman and adviser congressman Ace Barbers one duffle bag. They also might say I gave the other one to House committee on justice chairman Rep. Gerville Luistro,” Kapunan said.

On a more serious note, Kapunan urged the public to focus on the issues being discussed in the impeachment trial and not be sidetracked by what she called the “diversionary tactics” of the Vice President’s camp.

“I think we should focus on the impeachment case. It’s very obvious that these are all diversionary tactics from the Office of the Vice President. They have been using these as the other narrative,” she noticed.

No more EDSA revolt

Private prosecutor Amando Virgil Ligutan hopes that the country won’t revolt anew against the government if the second-highest official in the land gets acquitted.

“I don’t want to see another EDSA, not in this lifetime,” Ligutan said yesterday at a gathering of Rotary Club of Manila members in Makati.

“At the rate we’re going, I don’t think, and I’m hoping and I’m praying that there will be no need for that. We follow what is stated; we follow the instructions of the Constitution,” he added.

As an officer of the court, Ligutan said he is bound to defend impeachment as a mechanism enshrined in the 1987 Constitution to remove an erring president, vice president, chief justice, associate justices, ombudsman and heads of the constitutional commissions.

“The maturity of a nation,” according to the private counsel and longtime law educator, “is measured by the way we change leaders through constitutional means.”

Ligutan’s remarks – and the question that prompted him to say that – come as the nation commemorates today the 43rd death anniversary of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr., whose assassination slowly marked the downfall of the Marcos Sr. administration and his subsequent ouster through the first people power revolution.

An impeachment trial however triggered the second people power. In 2001, the masses went to the streets to demand former president Joseph Estrada’s resignation after 11 senators prevented the prosecution from opening the infamous second envelope that would have tied him directly to corruption.

The third people power, while not directly linked to the impeachment, broke out after Estrada was ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan on the same charges he faced in his trial. The weeklong protest left four people dead.

A nation on trial

Ligutan said Duterte is not the only one on trial here, but also the senators who will decide the threshold question.

“Our judges must be circumspect,” he said. “They must heed both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.”

“If accountability is to be real, if impeachment is to be meaningful, if democracy is to be defended, even the judges of accountability (should) themselves be accountable to the Constitution,” he said. – EJ Macababbad