Don’t expect the defense panel in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona to end its presentation this week with “fireworks” before the senator-judges take a break for Holy Week. Neither Cristina Corona nor any other “star witness” will take the stand just yet.
The Corona defense team has promised to present a host of witnesses to dispute Article 2 at the impeachment trial, but they are “lightweight” witnesses compared to Cristina or even the Chief Justice himself.
Congress adjourns on March 23 and resumes sessions on May 7.
Defense counsel and spokesperson Tranquil Salvador III said the panel would not present Cristina as a witness for her husband until May.
Presenting Cristina as a witness is not so much a matter of defense strategy as a matter of “need,” according to Salvador. Her appearance would largely depend on the flow of witnesses and their testimonies, he added.
No ‘star witness’
“We’re laying our evidence, and in laying the evidence, there is a path you will use. You draw a direction. And when the direction reaches that point where we need to present Mrs. Corona, then we will do it. So we can’t say when she will testify,” he said.
Earlier in a press forum at Annabel’s restaurant in Quezon City, Salvador said the defense panel had no “star witnesses” to present.
His colleague, lawyer Rico Paolo Quicho, said the Lenten recess should give everyone, including the judges, prosecution and defense lawyers, a “second wind” before the final stretch of the drawn-out trial in May and June.
Not a delay
This, however, did not mean that the defense was delaying the presentation of its evidence, another defense spokesperson, Karen Jimeno, said.
In compliance with impeachment rules, the defense withheld the identities of their witnesses for the coming week, the second week of their presentation.
The defense lawyers, however, said that Corona himself was the best person to answer the issues of his involvement in Basa-Guidote Enterprises Inc. (BGEI), the corporation owned by his wife’s family that has gained prominence in the trial.
Reacting to a story by rappler.com that said Corona himself had negotiated the sale of BGEI’s property in Manila, Salvador said: “I don’t want to touch on that. If he’s going to take the witness stand, it will appear that we will be explaining this ahead of his testimony.
“If I read it right, his request is that he should be the one to explain, which I think is the better way of doing it. Besides, we have no personal knowledge of it.”
Property negotiation
The story said Corona and his wife met with then Manila Mayor Lito Atienza to negotiate the sale of the 1,020-square meter lot on Legarda Street, “crown jewel” of the Basa-Guidote family corporation, agreeing on the price P34.7 million. The city government later issued a check to Cristina “in trust” for BGEI.
In his own statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, Corona listed “cash advances” from BGEI representing payment for his properties.
The defense panel, however, said it was too early to say if Corona himself would testify at his own trial.
“It’s hard to say whether this would hasten the whole thing. We have yet to see if this is needed. There are those pushing for his testimony since he’s the accused. If we decided to put him on the stand on the first day, we still would have called in the other witnesses that we presented,” Jimeno said.