Prosecution claims Corona voted in favor of Arroyo in 80% of cases

MANILA, Philippines—Chief Justice Renato Corona has allegedly voted in favor of former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in more than 80 percent of cases filed against her in court, a member of the prosecution team claimed on Thursday.

On Day 23 of the impeachment trial of Corona, Northern Samar Representative Raul Daza, a member of the prosecution team, told the Senate that Corona voted in favor of Arroyo in more than 80 percent of 31 cases filed against her.

“Doon po sa aming kaalaman, sa research na ginawa ng aming pangkat ay lumalabas po na may menos mga 31 (Based on our research, it appears that there are 31 (cases filed against Arroyo),” Daza said, responding to queries of Senate Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada.

“At ang percentage kung hindi po ako nagkakamali ay pumapabor po ng mahigit 80 percent, ang individual vote ng Chief Justice (And the percentage, if I am not mistaken, was that more than 80 percent was the individual vote of the Chief Justice),” he said.

This alleged “partiality and subservience in cases involving the Arroyo administration from the time he (Corona) was appointed as associate justice to the time of his midnight appointment as Chief Justice’ was contained under Article 1 of the impeachment complaint filed against the Chief Justice.

But Daza said the prosecution team has yet to discuss whether or not to present Article 1 before the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court.

So far, the prosecutors have presented Article 2, 3 and 7 of eight articles in the complaint.

“Pag-uusapan pa po namin yan. Wala pa po kaming kapasiyahan tungkol sa bagay na iyan (We will talk about that. We don’t have a decision yet on that matter),” he said.

Estrada wondered why the prosecution had to separate Article 1 from Article 7 when both were identical.

Article 7 of the complaint also accused Corona of “partiality” in granting a temporary retraining order in favor of Arroyo and her husband, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo “in order to give them an opportunity to escape prosecution…”