Rep. Sonny Angara of the prosecution team offers some ideas on Chief Justice Renato Corona's motion that he and his family not be summoned to testify in the impeachment trial. Video by INQUIRER.net's Noy Morcoso
Senator Edgardo Angara on Tuesday brushed off suggestions of a conflict of interest between him and his son, Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“Why should there be conflict when (my son) is not a prosecutor,” the senator said when asked about the role of his son as a deputy spokesperson of the House prosecution panel.
His son, Representative Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara also dismissed any insinuation that his role in the prosecution may lead to calls for the elder Angara to inhibit himself as one of the senator-judges in the impeachment trial.
The young Angara said he had declined a slot in the panel precisely so he would not have to appear and present evidence before a court that included his father.
The elder Angara, in a separate interview, voiced the same view: “Being a spokesperson is not being antagonistic to the position of a judge. The spokesperson just reflects the position of the person he represents.”
Opposing positions
“It is actually my son who had (anxieties) about my position as senator-judge… that I might be placed in an uncomfortable position. But we live two different careers and lives and households … I expect him to make his own decisions. In fact, I only learned about his job as deputy spokesperson in the newspapers,” the senator said.
“The last time I saw him was during our family’s Christmas celebration and we did not discuss the impeachment case at all,” he said.
The young Angara said he and his father had taken opposing positions on many issues. “Although I respect him very much, I believe we have our own political views,” he said.
“He is his own man, Sonny Angara said of his father, the longest serving senator in the legislature since the revival of democracy in the country in 1986.
Sonny Angara said his father, a lawyer and former president of the University of the Philippines, also cannot dictate on or influence him. With a report by Cynthia D. Balana