2 senator-judges dismayed over prosecution performance

MANILA, Philippines—Two senators, sitting as judges in the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Renato Corona expressed dismay over the prosecutors’ performance during Tuesday’s proceeding, one describing it a “freezing below zero.”

“It’s freezing below zero. They should always come prepared if they are really serious to prove their case,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said in a text message on Wednesday.

“This is not a purely political exercise, if they are thinking along that line. Evidence and how they are presented should be the order of the day. And I mean, every single day,” he said.

Lacson noted that even the senator-judges like him also study and prepare for the trial and so he said, “The prosecutors and the defense team must do much more.”

“Ours is not a moot court doing some kind of a mock trial,” he further said.

Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III also expressed disappointment at the prosecutors’ performance, saying they should have long prepared for the trial.

“I know these things happen but in practice the lawyer has many cases. But here, they have only one case. And they had close to a month to prepare. They should have been prepared for it,” Pimentel said over the phone.

Despite this, Pimentel said his decision on Corona’s case would not be affected by these procedural issues.

“I will decide on the basis of the evidence,” he said.