Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile . JUNNY ROY / SENATE POOL
MANILA, Philippines – The Senate, acting as impeachment court, decided not to “act” on the waiver that Chief Justice Renato Corona has issued to allow the opening of all his dollar and peso bank accounts.
“We take note of the waiver of the Chief Justice but we can’t act on it,” Senate President and presiding officer Juan Ponce-Enrile said after meeting with senators, who sit as judges in the impeachment trial of Corona.
The impeachment court only hears the facts and receives evidence from the prosecution and the defense teams but doesn’t act as a “producer of evidence.”
He also noted that the defense team has terminated its presentation of evidence while the prosecution team waived its right to cross-examine Corona.
“It’s the understanding of this court that in effect both sides of these adversarial proceeding, this impeachment proceeding is actually submitting the case for decision,” Enrile said.
“So we take note of this waiver but we can’t subpoena any other person mentioned here given the fact that we’re not supposed to produce evidence for the defense nor the prosecution,” he added.
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