Prosecution hit over Articles of Impeachment vs Corona

MANILA, Philippines–Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Tuesday said the impeachment court was having problem with the articles of impeachment filed by the House of Representatives against Chief Justice Renato Corona because their evidence seemed to be taken from thin air.

“You have failed to gather evidence before formally filing the impeachment charges and the Senate is gathering it for you in the actual hearing through compulsory processes,” Enrile said.

“You should have read those materials before you instituted the articles of impeachment,” he added at the start of the 21st day of the impeachment trial against Corona.

Senator-Judge Miriam Defensor-Santiago also cautioned the prosecution about the attachment they had included in their supplemental request for subpoena which the Philippine Savings Bank stated has 42 discrepancies.

“Be careful, you may be skating on thin ice,” Santiago said.

Santiago, citing a Supreme Court ruling, said that if the document that was presented by the prosecution in connection with the PS Bank accounts of the Chief Justice is false, then the maxim “Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus,” meaning “If a portion of a document is falsified, the entire document will be rejected,” holds true.