‘Scare tactic’ for senators to junk SC’s TRO–Prosecution

MANILA, Philippines- The prosecution said the alleged P100 million payoffs to senator-judges was part of black propaganda designed to scare them into abiding by the Supreme Court’s Temporary Restraining Order (TRO).

Mandaluyong Representative Neptali Gonzales II said in a press conference Monday that Sunday night’s disclosure by the defense was “principally designed to scare or influence the senator judges in their decision in today’s caucus.”

The defense panel of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona held a press conference Sunday night to disclose an alleged plan by president Benigno Aquino III, through executive secretary Paquito Ochoa, to pay P100 million to certain senator-judges in exchange for them to vote against the Supreme Court’s TRO on Corona’s dollar accounts.

He said defense lawyer Jose Roy’s disclosure was “double hearsay” because it came from an unnamed source who only heard about the senators complaining because Ochoa was allegedly pressuring them one-by-one to defy the TRO.

“Can you imagine what is in the minds of the senators now? If they vote to defy the TRO of the Supreme Court they will be accused of receiving money. That is the unfairness of the statement of the defense panel yesterday,” Gonzales said.

He said the defense was not even sure of the P100 million because it has yet to happen.

Quezon Representative Lorenzo Tanada said that it “was a pre-emptive move on the part of the defense panel in order to condition the minds of the public and not only the senator-judges.”

He added that the accusation of the defense “attacks the integrity of the senator-judges.”

Gonzales said that this was just one of the defense panel’s “scare tactics.”

He said that the defense keeps claiming that there would be a bank run, or a constitutional crisis, or another people power were all “designed to be scare tactics,”

Gonzales allayed fears that there would be a bank run saying that “what we are only talking about here is an exception to the rule because only the chief justice is facing an impeachment case.”