MANILA, Philippines—A top Liberal Party (LP) official in the Aquino Cabinet has expressed surprise at Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Jay Velasco’s support for the impeach complaint against Chief Justice Renato Corona that the House of Representatives transmitted to the Senate on Monday.
The congressman is the son of Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco, who like Corona and most of the other members of the Supreme Court were appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Corona faces an impeachment trial in the Senate after 188 House members accused him of showing partiality to Arroyo in cases involving the former President, who now represents Pampanga in the House.
“I was surprised myself considering how closely identified Justice Velasco is to Chief Justice Corona,” said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, who’s also a senior political adviser to President Benigno Aquino III.
Abad was asked to comment on whether he was seeing a crack in the ranks of the justices Arroyo appointed with the vote for impeachment cast by the younger Velasco in the House.
“I really don’t know and I don’t want to speculate,” Abad added.
The elder Velasco is the second most senior justice in the Supreme Court after Justice Antonio Carpio.
Carpio was in the running for the position of chief justice before losing out to Corona in a controversial appointment—prohibited by the Constitution— in the last days of the Arroyo administration.