SC meets en banc over Corona petition vs impeachment trial

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court will be holding its special en banc (full court) session this Thursday afternoon to deliberate on Chief Justice Renato Corona’s petition to nullify the ongoing impeachment trial and the Articles of Impeachment that were filed against him.

The high court is also expected to tackle a petition by PS Bank to stop the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, from compelling them to present Corona’s accounts.

The bank said that the Impeachment court’s order would put them at risk of being sanctioned by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for violating Republic Act 6426 or the Foreign Currency Deposit Act and could send chilling effects to other banks.

Other petitions on the agenda are those questioning the validity of the articles of impeachment as filed by lawyer Oliver Lozano, whistleblower Danilo Lihaylihay, lawyer Vladimir Cabigao, former Integrated Bar of the Philippines Vicente Millora, lawyers Homobono Adaza and Alan Paguia.

In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that the second impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide was barred under the constitutionally imposed one-year time bar rule.

In February 2011, the Supreme Court gave Congress the go-signal to proceed with the impeachment proceedings against then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. But before the Articles of Impeachment could be forwarded to the Senate, Gutierrez resigned.