“Naked truth better than best dressed lie” – Defense spokeperson Karen Jimeno

This is a repost from the Noisy Minority Facebook

Taking a leaf from a well-loved advice columnist, Atty. Karen Jimeno said, “The naked truth is better than the best dressed lie.”

This is the reaction of the defense spokesperson relative to the testimony of Land Regulation Authority (LRA) Administrator Eulalio Diaz III that raised questions on the alleged 45 Corona properties earlier presented by the prosecution.

Jimeno noted, “There is no one to blame for the erroneous report but the prosecution panel. Lies may be easier to tell and hear and sell to the public but they don’t make the truth disappear. Right now, the evidence points that there are no 45 properties.”

The lady defense spokesperson stated, “The good name of the Coronas has been tarnished because the prosecutors rushed their complaint. And it is precisely for this reason that while it offends us that we have been constantly been accused of delaying the trial, it is better do it deliberately and accurately than rush and make mistakes. After all, we all want to ferret out the truth.”

In a separate interview, defense counsel Atty. Rico Quicho said, “It was the prosecution who released to the public the alleged 45 properties as part of the campaign to shame the Chief Justice to resign. They have been conditioning the mind of the public that CJ Corona is guilty of the crimes.”

“It is clear that the impeachment complaint had political motives and the discrepancies in the properties prove that the prosecution had no evidence to begin with when they filed the complaint— which the defense has been arguing since Day One,” Quicho ended.

Atty. Jimeno likewise brushed aside the survey findings of the Pulse Asia saying, “Again, we have to be very discerning and not make any rush judgment.”

“As one Catholic bishop said yesterday, this is part of manipulating public opinion. The survey was conducted way before the defense started its presentation, so like the incident on the alleged 45 Corona properties, ideas are being peddled to the public will serve no good. Let us consider the propriety of the release of the survey. Why now when the prosecution’s evidence and facts like the alleged 45 properties are on the brink of collapsing?”

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, also the Chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) National Secretariat for Social Action, on Wednesday cautioned the public to not give so much importance to surveys as if they were already the “truth.”

“Anyone can just conduct a survey and we won’t even know if what they are saying is true,” Pabillo told reporters in a chance interview at the CBCP office late Tuesday.