Enrile: Classic case of wrong survey is the Man on the cross

By Cynthia D. Balana, Marlon Ramos, TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
1:24 am | Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

The cold facts of evidence, not poll surveys, will decide the fate of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona come judgment day, senator-judges said Tuesday.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and his colleagues belittled the effect of surveys on their final decision to convict or acquit the Chief Justice, after a Pulse Asia survey showed that close to half of the respondents believed he was guilty.

“I will look at the evidence,” Enrile told reporters. “If we use surveys to convict or not to convict a person charged in courts, then we do not need the courts. All we have to do is conduct surveys whenever somebody is charged.”
Enrile recalled that one senator voted in favor of then impeached US President Andrew Johnson in the 1860s, and was “destroyed by public opinion, but in the end, was vindicated.”

“The voting was almost even and one senator voted in his favor to save him. This guy was destroyed by public opinion but later on it turned out that he was correct,” he said.

Enrile was referring to US Sen. Edmund Ross who provided the decisive vote that acquitted Johnson, who was impeached over his reconstruction policy.

Administer justice
Enrile said he was not preoccupying himself with surveys because the job of the impeachment court was to administer justice.

“We are administering justice here and the classic case of a survey that was wrong is the man on the cross… He was judged by a survey and until now people are worshiping him,” he said of Jesus Christ.