Congressman warns Corona tactics could delay Senate trial

MANILA, Philippines—Chief Justice Renato Corona’s gambit to question the veracity of the 188 signatures on the impeachment complaint against him would stall the start of the Senate trial until after the 2013 elections or the end of the term of the incumbent lawmakers.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben P. Evardone warned that Corona’s delaying tactics could render the impeachment complaint “functus officio” or lapsed until the 2013 elections.

“This means that the Senate may have to receive evidence on the issue of verification before it proceeds to try the more important allegations in the Articles of Impeachment,” Evardone said.

In his answer to the impeachment complaint, Corona raised the “propriety of verification as a preliminary matter” as he questioned the “blitzkrieg” process in the filing, signing and transmitting of the impeachment complaint and claimed that most of the 188 signatories did not read the complaint before affixing their names.

But the House leaders who initiated the impeachment case insisted that the process was followed, including verification.

Evardone said that if the Senate decides to go through the verification process, each of the 188 lawmakers would be required to testify whether they had read the resolution or not before signing the complaint.

“This would eat up, roughly, 188 trial days, or more than six months, including weekends and holidays. If that happens, the power of the Senate, as an impeachment court, could lapse since the respective terms of office of the prosecutors-congressmen, and 12 of the senators will end,” Evardone said.

Evardone said that if the Senate ignores Corona’s plea for verification, he could use it as a basis to file a petition for certiorari and/or injunction in the Supreme Court against the Senate for grave abuse of discretion.

Evardone, who is not a lawyer, argued that the verification process was a “non-issue.”

The issue of verification is proper only when what is filed is a complaint, which needs prior verification. What the 188 HOR members filed here was a Resolution of Impeachment. We did not file a verified complaint,” said Evardone, who noted that the signatures were sufficient as proof of impeachment under the Constitution.