Defense panel decries Drilon ‘rescue’

Senator Franklin Drilon INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Defense lawyers on Thursday expressed concern that some senators were acting as “substitutes” for fumbling House prosecutors in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Serafin Cuevas, Corona’s lead counsel, lamented how Senator Franklin Drilon saved the day for the prosecution and compelled Enriqueta Vidal, the Supreme Court clerk of court, to release to the impeachment court the chief magistrate’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) without authorization from the high tribunal.

According to Cuevas, Drilon’s actions aided the House panel in securing Corona’s SALNs, which were later marked as part of the prosecution evidence.

“If a senator is asking a question, we cannot raise an objection even if we feel that the senator-judge was already acting as a prosecutor. We will be overruled. I hope we will have that right or privilege to object.” he said.

Seek relief from SC?

Asked if he was alarmed by Drilon’s behavior, he said: “Of course, I’m just human. But we still recognize their authority because they are the judges.”

The defense panel may have to seek relief from the high tribunal “if we feel that their actions are already constitutive of grave abuse of discretion,” said the former Supreme Court associate justice.

“They (senators) are judges. They shall remain impartial and shall decide on the basis of the Constitution and the law,” Cuevas said in a news briefing after the trial on Wednesday night.

“If only they let the prosecution ask questions, those documents (SALNs) would not have been disclosed. But Drilon intervened. I tried to object, but they said it cannot be done so I withdrew my objection,” he said in Filipino.

Vidal, who initially told the court that she did not bring Corona’s SALNs with her, reluctantly turned over copies of Corona’s SALN under questioning by Drilon, one of President Benigno Aquino III’s staunchest allies in the ruling Liberal Party.

SALNs of the justices are required to be filed with the clerk of court under a 1989 resolution of the high tribunal and can only be released by an en banc court ruling to protect them from harassment.

Drilon’s intervention saved the presentation of private prosecutor Mario Bautista, who failed to ask Vidal if she had the documents in her possession.

Jose Roy III, another defense lawyer, noted that the House panel was able to “get what it wanted without having to do anything.”

“The way the litigation is going, it seems we have more opponents than what appear on the tables. While we were successful in the defense of our client, we didn’t know that there will be substitutes who were going to come in and play. But that’s just the way it is.”

“While you don’t agree with some of their actions, you have to go and unless it is very clear that they are already trampling on our rights, then that’s the right time (to seek relief from the court),” he said.

Cuevas said Corona’s legal team was discussing the possibility of bringing its concern to the Supreme Court if it becomes more apparent that some senators are favoring the prosecution panel.

The 83-year-old lawyer shrugged off suggestions that a decision to seek legal remedies would delay the proceedings, arguing that lawyers were obligated to ensure the best legal action for their client.

“We are prepared for this eventuality … We will invoke our right to get a relief from the Supreme Court. Where else can we go? That is the only recourse left on our table … We are merely abiding by the dictates of the Constitution,” Cuevas explained.

What’s your problem?

Former Senator Francisco Tatad said he approached Drilon during a break in the proceedings on Thursday to express concern about his observation that the senator was “doing a job” but was “beginning to sound like (he is) a member of the prosecution.”

Tatad told reporters Drilon snapped back at him, “Why, what’s your problem? You disqualify me! Disqualify me!”

Tatad said Drilon told him to “sit with them in the defense panel.”

“I’m not here to be part of either prosecution or defense panel.  I’m here to write a book on the impeachment. This would be my second book on impeachment,” said Tatad, who wrote the book,  “The Impeachment of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada” several months after his ouster in 2001.

Tatad, who was Senate majority leader when Drilon was Senate President, said he told the senator-judge “that I’m interested in credibility of the impeachment process.”

Tatad said he also told Drilon that he only expressed concern “as a friend (kaibigan tayo), that’s why I talked to him.”

“He was still looking angry when I left,” Tatad recalled.

Asked for comment, Drilon told reporters, “That’s small stuff.  Let’s just talk about the impeachment.”