After arguing three of eight articles of impeachment, the prosecution on Tuesday suddenly announced it was resting its case against Chief Justice Renato Corona, confident it had presented overwhelming evidence to convict him of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.
Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., the chief prosecutor, announced the decision to drop five articles on Day 25 of the impeachment trial.
Tupas later told reporters that the 11-member House panel, in consultation with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, agreed on Monday night to scrap Articles 1,4,5,6 and 8 of the impeachment complaint.
Tupas said the panel members believed it had presented convincing evidence to support Article 2 (Corona’s nondisclosure of statement of assets, liabilities and net worth, or SALN), Article 3 (lack of probity, integrity and independence resulting in flip-flopping decisions), and Article 7 (irregular issuance of a temporary restraining order, or TRO, on the hold-departure order on former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo).
Article 2 pertains to culpable violation of the Constitution while Articles 3 and 7 constitute the charge of betrayal of public trust.
Tupas said that while the idea of resting the prosecution case was first broached at the end of the presentation of evidence for Article 2, the “final final decision” to terminate was made at the end of Monday’s trial.
He said the presentations on Article 3 and 7 already completed the prosecution’s story line that Corona was not fit to remain in his position.
Tupas also said the decision of the Senate impeachment court to disallow the presentation of a Philippine Airlines executive as witness for the prosecution, and the Supreme Court’s issuance of a resolution on February 14 prohibiting any of its members and employees from testifying in the trial were factors that prompted the decision.
“Finally, we felt that we have presented more than enough to remove the Chief Justice so we decided to end this. However, this is subject to the dollar account deposits of the Chief Justice. We will go back to Article 2 if the Supreme Court TRO on the dollar account is lifted,” he stressed.
Just a dismissal case
Marikina Representative Romero Quimbo, the prosecution spokesperson, said, “As far as we are concerned, we feel very strongly about our case in terms of having proved Articles 2, 3 as well as 7.”
“It’s just a dismissal case which is why we feel that we have presented enough evidence to warrant the dismissal of the Chief Justice from his position,” Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo Angara said, stressing his liberty and property were not at stake.
Quimbo said the prosecution decided to just forget about its bid to have Supreme Court Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno testify after hearing the tribunal’s spokesperson, Midas Marquez, reiterating the February 14 resolution in a press briefing Tuesday prohibiting justices and court employees from appearing in the impeachment trial.
“We were hoping that Justice Sereno would show up to be able to give further meat to Article 7 but based on our assessment last night, Article 7 can stand even without her and the presscon of Midas clearly showed to us that Justice Sereno will not be able to show up in the Senate,” Quimbo added.
Turn of defense
It is now the turn of the defense to present evidence.
Chief defense counsel, Serafin Cuevas, said his team had at least 25 witnesses to disprove the allegations against the respondent.
In a post-trial interview, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said he “cannot predict the repercussions” of the prosecution decision but said the panel had the right not to pursue the other charges.
Enrile warned prosecutors shortly before the session was adjourned that the defense panel could still use evidence it planned to present for the articles that were dropped to controvert charges against Corona in the articles where evidence against him were presented.
The articles that prosecutors would no longer present evidence for include:
Article 1 accusing Corona of “partiality” in cases involving the Arroyo administration
Article 4 charging the Chief Justice with disregarding the principle of separation of powers by issuing a status quo ante order against the House of Representatives in connection with the impeachment case of then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who later resigned.
Article 5 alleging Corona showed “arbitrariness and partiality” in the creation of 16 new cities and the promotion of Dinagat Island into a province.
Article 6 where Corona allegedly arrogated unto himself the authority to investigate Supreme Court associate justice Mariano del Castillo to exculpate him of plagiarism charges.
Article 8 accusing the Chief Justice of failure and refusal to account for the Judiciary Development Fund and the Special Allowance for the Judiciary collections.
Tupas took the floor after Enrile announced that the impeachment court would honor a decision of the Supreme Court not to allow two of its employees to testify against Corona, invoking judicial privilege.
25 witnesses
“We do not wish to prolong the proceedings,” Tupas explained.
He said that the prosecution had presented 17 witnesses and 166 documents for Article 2, accusing Corona of failure to include expensive properties in his SALN; one witness and 16 documents for Article 3 charging the Chief Justice with failure to observe stringent standards of competence, integrity, probity and independence and seven witnesses and 65 documents for Article 7 accusing Corona of “partiality” in the court’s issuance of the TRO on the ban on Arroyo’s travel abroad, allegedly to help her to escape prosecution.
Tupas earlier said that the prosecution had as many as 100 witnesses.
Enrile was noncommittal when later asked whether the defense would be allowed to begin their presentation Wednesday should Cuevas finish his cross-examination of ABS-CBN cameraman Danilo Piedad.
Cuevas asked that he be allowed to cross-examine Piedad on Wednesday since he was still not in court when the prosecution presented Piedad’s direct testimony at the first hour of the trial.
Piedad’s officemates—cameraman Edmond Losalla and Rochelle Mendez, head of the ABS-CBN news library—were also presented in connection with the raw footage of Arroyo’s attempt to leave the country on Nov. 15, 2011, and the press conference conducted by Midas Marquez in the Supreme Court announcing the issuance of the TRO. With Maila Ager, INQUIRER.net
Originally posted: 5:09 pm | Tuesday, February 28th, 2012