Prosecution would have had Corona’s statement stricken out , says solon

Majority Leader Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—If Chief Justice Renato Corona succeeded in walking out of the Senate after his three-hour narrative testimony, the prosecution would move to strike out his statement.

House majority leader Neptali Gonzales Jr. on Wednesday described to the media the scenario that would push them to request the impeachment tribunal to strike Corona’s statement out of its record.

“I’m sure kung natuloy ang pag-alis niya kahapon at hindi nalock-in, talagang we will move to strike out.”

But as it is, with Corona confined at the Medical City’s intensive care unit, he said the chief magistrate should be given ample time to inform the court if he has plans of going back to trial and submitting himself for cross examination.

He said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had been very generous in allowing Corona a three-hour speech.

Gonzales said the presiding officer probably did not want to be accused of violating due process.

Asked whether they doubted Corona’s serious medical condition, the majority leader chose not to speculate and said “kung may sakit siya, (if he’s sick) we hope he gets well soon.”

Once he is back on his feet and he instructs his counsels to tell the senator-judges that he does not want to be subjected to a cross examination, Gonzales said that they “will react. We have to strike out (his statement since) violation naman yun ng due process.”

He said the prosecution “is not totally without remedy. Baka akala ng defense basta hindi makabalik (The defense think if [Corona] won’t come back) we will be forced to wait.”

“We can waive cross examination. What will prevent us? Karamihan sa statements niya ay hearsay. He has not established anything, hindi makakadagdag sa pagprove ng kanyang innocence (ang statement niya).”

House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III said that “for trained lawyers maraming hearsay (sa statement ni Corona) pero may admissions, it proves dollar and peso accounts. And problem na lang ay ang halaga (The problem now is the value).”

But like Gonzales, he said “walang particular na sinabi na gigiba sa (no particular statement that could destroy the) position of the prosecution.”

Speaking from his experience as a practitioner of law, Gonzales said “pwede no cross. Our first option is to cross kaya lang kung walang katiyakan kung babalik, ayaw namin umabot ng “see you next year” sa kanya (kasi it would render the) impeachment a futile exercise.”

Right now, he says that they hoped the defense kept in mind that they only had two weeks left and “ang mahirap lang ngayon, (what’s difficult now is) in suspended animation ngayon ang Senate.”

A mistrial at this point however has no basis, Tañada said, saying that “the court has been very liberal (and the grounds for mistrial would only be) if the judge did not give him leeway.”