MANILA, Philippines—A “scrap of paper” and a “very strange, bazaar” document were how Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago described the subpoena requested by the prosecution team containing unverified bank records of Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Santiago was fuming when she stood at the resumption of Corona’s impeachment trial Tuesday, noting the prosecutors’ own admission in the subpoena that they had no knowledge of the alleged specimen signatures of the chief magistrate they attached in the pleading.
“Hindi mo pala alam kung ano iyon e. Bakit sisinglin mo kami? It’s a scrap of paper… Why are you doing this to court?” she asked.
And to the prosecutors’ claim that the attached document came from the anonymous source, Santiago said, “My goodness! If you bring this to any trial judge in the entire country, particularly in Metro Manila, you will be cited for contempt.”
Santiago also burst in anger by the prosecutors’ mention of media accounts as one of the basis for their request to subpoena Corona’s bank records.
“Is this government by media or is this judicial system by media?” asked the senator.
“Again this is a ground for contempt. If I were a trial judge I would say you’re wasting my time: Sheriff take them to city jail. Direct contempt iyon e,” she said.
Santiago was also angered by the prosecutors argument that even if they could not verify the authenticity of the specimen n signatures, they felt that it was their duty to submit it to the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court.
“Duty my foot!” the senator exclaimed, “It’s not your duty. It’s your liability that is disgraced to the judicial system.”
Even the media did not escape Santiago’s ire, noting how the media could easily brand the senator-judges as pro-Aquino (referring to President Benigno Aquino III or pro-Corona.
“What’s the role of media? Pababayanan na lang ba natin sila?” asked Santiago, “What does it say of our integrity. Pababayaan lang ba sila? Libreng-libre sila in the name of the freedom of the press.”