MANILA, Philippines—The Liberal Party’s four senators—Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Ralph Recto and Teofisto Guingona III—skipped the LP’s 66th anniversary celebration on Friday night to steer clear of impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona’s prosecutors and their top supporter President Benigno Aquino.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, a senior political adviser to Aquino and an LP stalwart, said the senators sent word that they were not attending the dinner at the Araneta-Roxas estate in Quezon City even if it was just a social event.
“All LP senators sent word that even if the event is purely social, they deemed it prudent to skip this year’s 66th anniversary celebration so as to avoid any accusations of bias or partiality in the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona,” Abad said in a text message to the Inquirer.
The move came after members of Corona’s defense team lamented Drilon’s role in obtaining the magistrate’s latest statements of assets, liabilities and net worth from a reluctant court clerk—a move they saw as aiding the prosecution.
A good number of the House prosecution panel, led by the chair of the House committee on justice, Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, Jr., are members of the LP.
Asked if the President told the LP members on the prosecution team to improve their performance in the trial, Abad said, “No, he didn’t.”
“But he did emphasize the importance of succeeding in the impeachment to advance reforms in good governance. And he urged partymates to support the prosecutors,” Abad said.
In his speech, Aquino said Corona’s impeachment was one of the brightest moments of the LP. Abad said Aquino, the party chairperson, asked his party mates to stand squarely behind Corona’s prosecutors.
“Last December, we and our Liberal congressmen had a get-together with other congressmen who may not be Liberal in name but are Liberal in their heart and in deed,” President Aquino said in Filipino.
“I mentioned that gathering,” Aquino added, “because it was one of the brightest signs that the Liberal (Party) will not waver.”
“We will not shirk our duty, we will not deviate from the path of principle, and we will not betray the people,” he said.
The House of Representatives, on the strength of 188 signatories, endorsed to the Senate last December the articles of impeachment against Corona. Aquino later met in a hotel in Mandaluyong City with members of the House majority that signed the impeachment led by LP members Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and House Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II.
Belmonte and the chair of the House committee on appropriations, Cavite Representative Joseph Emilio Abaya, also an LP member, have said that Aquino was upset with Corona after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining against travel restrictions imposed on former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in November.
Arroyo has since been charged with the non-bailable offense of electoral sabotage and also faces a number of plunder charges.