House finds lead lawyer for Corona impeach panel
Chief Justice Renato Corona
The panel from the House of Representatives that will prosecute Chief Justice Renato Corona in his impeachment trial at the Senate has found a lead private counsel.
Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., chief of the 11-member House prosecution panel, on Tuesday announced that Mario Bautista, managing partner of the Poblador Bautista and Reyes law office, would lead the private legal team that would supervise, direct, review and strategize for the panel.
It was Bautista, a seasoned litigation lawyer, who presented banker Clarissa Ocampo as a surprise witness during the impeachment trial of then President Joseph Estrada in 2000.
Tupas said the panel had spent two weeks searching for private law firms and lawyers who would help in the prosecution. He said many private lawyers had admitted to finding it difficult to go against the Supreme Court.
“Finally, we were able to talk to Bautista. He will form his support staff on top of the eight private legal teams that will help prosecute each article of impeachment,” Tupas said.
Lawyer Valentina Cruz, spokesperson of the impeachment court, told reporters that Corona’s impeachment trial would proceed as scheduled in January despite his “prayer” that the impeachment complaint against him be dismissed for supposed constitutional infirmity.
Cruz said Corona’s response and the articles of impeachment amounted to “allegations” at this point and would have to be evaluated based on evidence.
“Since it’s the Chief Justice who is the defendant, it is but natural that he would pray for the dismissal of the complaint,” she said.
“But that doesn’t mean that the Senate will act upon it just like that because the Senate has to conduct the trial,” she added.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said Corona’s reply to the impeachment complaint would “take its natural course” and would be decided on by the senators sitting as judges in the impeachment court.
No signature
Marikina City Representative Romero Quimbo, the spokesperson of the House prosecution panel, said the Senate should dismiss Corona’s 79-page answer to the impeachment complaint because it was not only baseless but also “defective” in that it lacked his signature.
“He is effectively waiving his chance to answer and controvert the allegations against him. It weakens the validity of his answer,” Quimbo said in a press conference.
“It is ironic that he is accusing us of not verifying the 188 signatures in the complaint when he himself did not sign his answer, as required in any court document. Only his lawyers signed it for him,” he said.
The prosecution panel is expected to submit its formal reply to Corona’s answer on January 2.
Quimbo also said Corona should consider the “wisdom” of taking a leave of absence.
“We urge the Chief Justice to go on leave. I think this is the decent thing to do. He is a lawyer. The prosecutors think that it is incumbent on him to go on leave so that the Supreme Court as an institution will not be abused or misused by [him] to protect himself,” Quimbo said, noting that the high tribunal’s spokesperson, Jose Midas Marquez, “is defending the Chief Justice in this issue in his individual capacity.”
And if the Senate would impose a gag order on House members, Quimbo said, it would also be proper that court employees should not be allowed to speak out in Corona’s defense.
Retribution
Quimbo said fears of retribution from Corona and his allies were so “real and imminent” that the House prosecution panel decided to keep the identities of the other private lawyers secret while preparing for the Senate trial.
He said Bautista had agreed to lead the prosecution team pro bono and in a private capacity.
Bautista, described as “one of the country’s best litigators,” was reportedly the subject of a tug-of-war between the prosecution and the defense panels last week.
“We sought him out for quite a time and are elated that he accepted to serve our country again. With him leading our group, we are even more confident that we will get a conviction of the Chief Justice,” Quimbo said.
According to Quimbo, Corona obviously considered the impeachment trial a serious threat to his term, which is to end in 2018, when he “obtained the most expensive lawyers in town for his defense. ”
Corona’s defense team is led by retired Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas, with Ernesto Francisco Jr., Jose Roy III, Jacinto Jimenez, Dennis Manalo and German Lichauco II as initial members.
Quick trial
Senator Joker Arroyo is anticipating a relatively quick trial with the positions of the prosecution and the defense “defined, and the issues controverted.”
“With that, the Senate should be able to make a ruling, whether it is conviction or acquittal, and finish the trial in one month,” Arroyo said in a statement.
“Unless the parties meander into extraneous matters and grandstand, and the Senate tolerates it, the trial should be straightforward and brief,” he said.
“The people and the government have other more important things to attend to than get fixated on the trial’s entertainment value.”
Cruz said the senator-judges would decide on the charges against Corona only after the prosecution and the defense had presented their respective evidence during the trial.
She said they could not decide on Corona’s response or the prosecution’s charges, because these were “mere allegations [that] have to be proven in the course of the trial.”
Arroyo said the articles of impeachment were “not complicated at all” as they were “essentially anchored on public documents” such as Supreme Court decisions.
“The allegations in the articles of impeachment revolve mainly around questions of law and hardly around facts,” he said.
“Questions of law are resolved on the basis of the legal arguments of each side. Questions of fact are resolved through evidence, testimonial or documentary.”
‘It’s nothing’
Members of the prosecution panel belittled Corona’s reply to the impeachment complaint.
“Ah wala naman ’yun ((It’s nothing),” Tupas told the Inquirer, adding that Corona “did not directly answer [the allegations]” and was only “trying to resort to legal technicalities … to avoid public accountability.”
“We are looking forward to the trial in the Senate to find the truth and hold the respondent accountable. We are confident that we have a strong case against the Chief Justice,” Tupas said.
Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares said Corona’s answer failed to argue against the jurisdiction of the Senate.
“We will argue that the trial should proceed because the Senate has jurisdiction, and that the claim that the Chief Justice cannot be convicted merely because the decisions listed in the complaint are collegial is absurd, because the Constitution requires each Supreme Court justice to be independent and impartial,” he said.
Colmenares said the issue was whether the Chief Justice was biased in favor of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
He said the fact that the other justices might also be partial did not save the accused from being convicted of partiality and subservience to a favored party. With a report from Christian V. Esguerra
