Fariñas clarifies admission on impeachment complaint

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Ilocos Norte Representative Rudy Fariñas clarified on Tuesday that he didn’t believe that the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona was flawed but thought that it was “badly written” or “poorly crafted”.

Fariñas issued the statement shortly after he admitted during the impeachment trial that he found the complaint filed by his colleagues before the Senate “badly written”.

He said later in a press conference that although the writing style was not as pleasing, he believed in its contents. The cause of action and valid grounds are also the reasons why he decided to be a prosecutor.

Fariñas said that every article in the Articles of Impeachment were sufficient to pin down the Chief Justice.

The impeachment complaint was written by the committee on justice at the House of Representatives.

Anakbayan Representative Kaka Bag-ao defended Fariñas’ statement, saying that the committee agreed on the facts of the complaint despite their differences.

Bag-ao clarified that they were only charging Corona with “betrayal of public trust” and “culpable violation of the Constitution.” The trial is only taking too long because of the number of witnesses with valuable evidence or information that can help them prove their charges.