From where I sit: Enrile's master stroke

Some may call it hairsplitting but the distinction carved out by the Senate President in relation to the TRO of the Supreme Court is a master stroke of defending the Senate's turf, i.e., the duty to "try and decide" the impeachment of Corona, while at the same time conceding to the Supreme Court the power to rule on the only matter that is now left for it to decide, i.e., to dismiss the Corona and related petitions for being moot and academic as there is nothing left for the Court to stop. By conceding the effectivity of the TRO, issued only to maintain the status quo (which is that confidentiality provisions of the Foreign Currency Deposit Act are not breached by the Senate), but without giving ground insofar as the conduct of the other remaining matters left to try, the Senate President basically rendered the Corona petition moot and academic and fired a shot across the bow to the Court–"back off." The Court would do well to heed that by dismissing the Corona and related petitions and let the Senate do its duty. It was also a shot across the bow to the President who may succumb to the temptation to replace the Senate President with one perhaps more vocal about convicting Corona–that if the President wants a trial that is credible and convincing and a verdict that will bring about closure, then he replaces the Senate President with that risk in mind. Three branches of government held at bay by one man–makes you wonder where he learned to do that, except that we all know where and when, of course. It is positively Machiavellian and another less-flattering name that also starts with the same letter. But you may ask: "Why issue the subpoena and then obey the Court's TRO against enforcing it?" Perhaps the Senate President was, as was everyone else (including Cuevas apparently), curious about the Corona dollars and wanted to confirm if they were there, and if they were, how Corona would react. Having heard what he needed to hear–that there are dollars–and seen what he needed to see–the almost gut-level ferocity by which Corona dragged the institution he presides over almost into the mud just to protect the information in the dollar accounts–the Senate President was content and perhaps did not need to hear and see more. The TRO may have stopped the Senate from enforcing its subpoena but it cannot put the genie back in the bottle–the Corona dollars are there, everyone knows it now. The information may not be admissible in a court of law (but it may be in an impeachment court) but in the minds of the public, which includes the Senator-jurors (for they are representatives of their respective publics), it certainly is. And that might already be enough.