Palace dares defense to prove bribery accusation

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Monday dared the lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona to prove their allegations that it had offered P100 million to senator-judges in exchange for defying the Supreme Court order stopping the Senate as an impeachment court from opening the foreign currency deposit accounts of the Chief Justice.

“We have a saying in law that he who alleges must prove the same. You are the ones who made the accusations, you should prove it,” Edwin Lacierda, spokesperson of President Aquino, said in a news conference, addressing the lawyers.

Lacierda said it was the “obligation” of the defense lawyers of Corona to prove their allegations that Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa attempted to convince senator-judges not to heed the Supreme Court-issued TRO on the subpoena of Corona’s dollar accounts.

He reiterated that the defense panel was trying to divert attention away from the “real issue” which was the culpability of Corona and that they were also trying to “condition the public that they are not going to undergo a fair trial.”

Lacierda also said that the defense panel came up with this allegation because it can no longer defend Corona.

“They are trying to condition the mind of any judgment of conviction–if at all–that would be rendered by the impeachment court would be tainted because of the alleged offer of P100 million which is basically and categorically not true,” he said.

Asked to comment on the lawyers’ allegation that the P100 million will be taken from the pork barrel funds for this year, Lacierda said that the request for the 2012 Priority Development Assistance Fund was “ongoing” and that there were no releases yet.

He said the Department of Budget and Management has yet to issue the guidelines for the 2012 PDAF.

“You know, it’s an insult [to] the institution of the Senate; as an institution and personally to the senators themselves, they assume that they can be bought from this PDAF. But PDAF is given, that’s granted, that’s P200 million every year,” he said.