MANILA, Philippines – Marikina Representative Romero Quimbo defended on Tuesday Article 3 of the Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Renato Corona after Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile gave the prosecution a dressing down over its alleged attempt to expand the charge to include bribery.
“It’s not a perfect complaint. It’s not the work of a literary expert. It’s not a sample of poetry,” said Quimbo in a press briefing after the trial was adjourned on request by the prosecution whose witness was disallowed from appearing at the trial.
Quimbo quoted Senator Joker Arroyo, who said the same words during the impeachment trial of former president Joseph Estrada after being asked if the prosecution was willing to concede that there were defects in their impeachment complaint.
Enrile did not allow Enrique Javier, vice-president for sales of Philippine Airlines (PAL), to testify on the alleged benefits Chief Justice Renato Corona and his wife received from PAL while the Supreme Court was deliberating on a labor dispute filed by the airlines union because this was not included in Article 3.
This alleges that the Chief Justice committed “culpable violations of the Constitution and betrayed the public trust by failing to meet and observe the stringent standards under Article VIII Section 7(3) of the Constitution that provides that ‘a member of the Judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence in allowing the Supreme Court to act on mere letter filed by a counsel which caused the issuance of flip-flopping decisions in final and executory cases; in creating an excessive entanglement with Mrs. Arroyo through her appointment of his wife to office and in discussing with litigants regarding cases pending before the Supreme Court.”
“The evidence today was far too crucial for us to use a technicality to set it aside,” Quimbo said.
The prosecution said that the testimony of Javier would have given the motive of Corona in reopening the case of the Flight Attendant’s and Steward’s Association of the Philippines (FASAP) against PAL when it was supposed to be final.
The prosecution claimed that PAL gave Corona a “Platinum Card”, which gave him travel privileges and benefits at the time when the FASAP case was before the Supreme Court.
Quimbo said that this allegation was important because this was not a political crime, but instead involved “families and individuals who were affected by an injustice in the Supreme Court”.
“At the very least, they could have allowed that evidence to be presented,” Quimbo said. “The senators are far intelligent enough to make [the] decision if the evidence is relevant or not.”
Quimbo pleaded to the Senate President and to the senators to accept the impeachment complaint with all its weaknesses, whatever they may be.
“We cannot amend it anymore [because] it is already here [and] it will require another year if we actually do that and we don’t think that is necessary,” Quimbo said.