Fake originals
MOST dictionaries, as the American Heritage Dictionary does, define the noun “fake” as “something not genuine or authentic; a counterfeit.” The Impeachment Court trying C.J. Corona has spent days to determine whether a document foisted on the Presiding Judge to issue a subpoena to the Psbank is a photocopy of a fake Psbank document or not.
The senator-judges are testing the credibility of PSB Katipunan Branch manager Anabel Tiongson. She made the declaration that the photocopy is of a “fake” PSB document. The credibility of Mr. Pascual Garcia, PSB president, is also in question because he affirmed Ms. Tiongson’s declaration.
Ms. Tiongson very early on said— she might have been more forceful and precise — that she has seen a PSB original that does not contain some of the information found in the prosecution’s photocopy and that the photocopy contains some information not found in the PSB original. The court has ordered Ms. Tiongson and Mr. Garcia to show the court the original document (with the lines containing data about dollar accounts covered). The original would show the senatorjudges that the two PSB executives are telling the truth.
Those senator-judges who would still doubt the credibility of Mr. Garcia and Ms. Tiongson, believing that they are hiding a genuine PSB document whose photocopy was given by the prosecution to the court, should send marshals to search the bank.
We believe, however, that no authentic PSB original from which the photocopy was made exists. Whoever created the document that was photocopied could have easily found out Mr. Corona’s PSB account numbers. With an authentic document of another PSB customer—or with the authentic document of Mr. Corona’s PSB account (perhaps courtesy of Congressman Banal’s source)—any artist using Adobe Photoshop software can create an “original.” It would have C.J. Corona’s name on it, entries with peso and dollar account numbers and amounts, initials and whatever else.
The result would be a fake PSB “original” document. But it could be photocopied— and cause the kind of trouble it is now causing in the impeachment court.
THE nightly news and the daily headlines emit much negative energy—a killer earthquake in Negros, not long after one of the worst disasters in Mindanao just as the past year drew to a close, the drone of brickbats and legal wrangling in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial, and sundry news of mishaps and infighting in the political arena. For several days now innuendos and intrigue from both the prosecution and defense panels in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona inundate our papers and send media persons in radio, television, print or the new media into a frenzy of biting commentary. And draw political figures into locking swords in endless press conferences.
I view this today from a vantage of a hiatus of sorts, on a lowdown or slowdown mode for a few weeks. Call it a retreat or a forced leave from the whirl of activity and engagements. There is, certainly, immense value in quietude, in a time for reading and reflection, for prayer and meditation. In the mad rush of life – or city life, in particular – we neglect essentials like sleep and exercise and family time.
There is much to learn from the screaming headlines. Foremost of which is the certitude that life is short and fame and glory in whatever material form are fleeting. Politics may be the terrain of power and contestation or business the domain of ambitions and profit- seeking ventures, both of which are not inherently bad or malevolent. But when the forces that define high- powered careers and pursuits take away from a generosity or simplicity of spirit or from a connectedness to life and its joys, it ought to do us well to take stock and slow down. Or shift gears and directions altogether.
A former president is in detention, as is a former Commission on Elections head, for electoral sabotage. A Supreme Court Justice is being tried for betrayal of public trust or of enriching himself at the expense of the public good he was sworn to uphold and serve. Our positions of power are not ours to keep or hoard; they are tied to verities of truth- seeking and truth- telling, or anchored in trust and the legitimate use of authority.
What does it profit a person, we are reminded, if he gains the world but loses his soul? The admonition is not just biblical,