Angara slams defense’s call for him to inhibit

Senator Edgardo Angara. INQUIRER file photo

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Edgardo Angara lambasted the defense team on Tuesday for asking him to inhibit from the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, calling it an obvious attempt to malign him.

“Mr President , when we convened as an impeachment court, we didn’t seek this role, it was mandated .. therefore it’s a constitutional task and I consider it as a constitutional duty on my part to act as a judge, and no persuasion can convince me that I should inhibit,” Angara said immediately after the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, began the proceeding a little past 2 in the afternoon.

“I did not have a hand in choosing my son, Sonny Angara to be the spokesperson of the (prosecution team)… I have no hand at all in telling anyone, please choose Sonny Angara,” he said.

Sonny is Quezon Representative Juan Edgardo Angara, one of the spokesmen of the prosecution team.

Their relationship was one of the issues raised by the defense team when it filed a motion asking the senator to inhibit from the proceeding.

The senator also denied the defense team’s insinuation that he had received favors from the government that may influence his decision in the ongoing Corona trial.

“The petitioners have the gall and the audacity to suggest that these are political favors so I reject that as an unthinking and illogical conclusion except to malign me,” Senator Angara added.