News junkies like me missed the Senate impeachment trial, that almost-daily ritual instigated by the Aquino administration to force the resignation of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona. Now that the trial has resumed, it turns out that the anticipation was a lot more enjoyable than the boring reality.

At a recent hearing, the prosecution once again grilled former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, in a bid (as his interrogator said) "to try our luck" with the never-ending campaign to impute irregularities in the city's purchase of properties belonging to the family of Corona's wife, Cristina Basa Corona. No such luck, as both Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago pointed out that it was wrong for the prosecution to allege anomalies in the purchase of the land – not only because it was not Atienza's job to verify check payments made by the city but also because the line of questioning was irrelevant to the trial.

The prosecution is still fishing. And Enrile and Santiago are still trying to lecture prosecutors on proper courtroom practice.

Again, if the rebooted trial so far is any indication of what lies ahead, we should be treated to more of the same: allegations of impropriety and illegality will be made wantonly, without so much as real proof, and the legally astute among the senators will not allow such sleight-of-hand.

And then the "trial" will proceed outside of the court, following the propaganda campaign writ in stone from the very beginning. The Aquino-favoring outlets of media will scream bloody murder after taking these allegations as actual facts, ignore contrary views and wait until the next batch of charges leveled by the prosecution again before repeating the cycle.

Boring. Really.

Perhaps the Senate should just vote on the case, since both sides sincerely believe that the whole trial is a legal sham and political exercise anyway. Better to monitor the developments of the mauling received by hard-hitting columnist Ramon Tulfo at the hands of actress Claudine Barretto and her groupies at the airport over the weekend.

That case promises to be a lot more compelling. Plus, given the volatility of the personalities involved, nobody can say for certain how that's going to turn out.

* * *

Poverty was very much on the minds of everyone last week. Some talked about it, others raided the trash to do something about it and there were those who merely put up walls to hide it from view or who virtually commanded that the poor eat rubber to stave off their hunger pangs.

More than half of Filipinos told a recent poll they suffer from poverty, even as a CNN report told the world our dirty (literally) secret about people eating "garbage chicken." Meanwhile, visiting delegates to an Asian Development Bank shindig in Manila discussed the problem of being poor as agents of the Aquino administration – the one that swore to eliminate both corruption AND poverty – walled off squatter shanties so ADB's visitors wouldn't see them eating chicken scraps recycled from garbage cans.

President Noynoy Aquino – who, it's safe to say, never experienced either poverty or hunger – was in the impoverished province of Catanduanes to inspect a government facility. In his unique way, he did his part to uplift the poor by handing locals yellow rubber "baller" bracelets.

It was not immediately known if the people who received Aquino's gifts attempted to cook the politically-loaded but nutrition-free accessories. It's uncertain if the Social Weather Stations polling firm would find out if the Catanduanes folk found the ballers more satisfying than "pagpag" afritada, assuming twice-cooked ChickenJoy reaches that far.

Back in Manila, a self-important palace official with no discernible job description took to the podium to defend the harebrained attempt by metropolitan authorities to hide the hovels of the pagpag-eaters with iron sheets. Everyone, this incredibly vain and vacuous official said, tries to look good when visitors come – including, it must be assumed, people who have nothing to eat who would probably tell SWS that they don't care how they look, as long as they have food, jobs and a future to look forward to.

This same brain-dead official also tried to justify spending millions for advertising spots on CNN declaring how everything was more fun in the Philippines; yes, the same network that was telling the whole world that people here eat chicken salvaged from the trash. This worthless piece of bureaucratic garbage should be boiled alive in his suit, seasoned and fed to the people behind the Potemkin walls; that should be more fun to watch than his smug, slimy and lying mug on television.

But the walls put up on Aquino's orders to hide his abject failure to eradicate poverty upon his election, as he promised, are just more propaganda, made tactile and (thankfully) mute. Even Imelda Marcos, whom Aquino was aping when he decided to hide the poor in the time of Google Earth, never promised an end to poverty.

The poor, the Good Book says, will always be with us. Thank God the same cannot be said for Aquino.*