Corona plans to face accusers at Senate

Chief Justice Renato Corona intends to appear at the Senate impeachment court on Monday to face his accusers.

“That was the emerging consensus” at Corona’s meeting with his legal team at an office in Makati City Saturday afternoon, team member Ramon Esguerra told the Inquirer by phone.

Esguerra said Corona would attend the first day of the trial also “to show respect for the impeaching body and in deference to the impeachment process.” He said Corona would be seated at the VIP section facing the senator-judges.

Some members of the defense team tried to dissuade the Chief Justice from showing up, for fear that his critics, including pro-Aquino activists, might shame him, Esguerra said: “Baka raw hiyain lang.”

But other members said it would be better for Corona to “face his accusers” and show that he was not hiding despite recent media attacks, Esguerra said, adding:

“They acknowledged that there was a risk that he would be insulted by his critics, but they said, ‘Let him take the risk.’”

Esguerra said on Saturday’s gathering served as a “final meeting” between Corona and his lawyers.

Vigorous democracy

He said everything was set for the trial, which Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III had earlier predicted as lasting for about three months.

In a news briefing over state-run radio dzRB, President Aquino’s deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte said Corona’s impeachment trial was a sign of “a vigorous democracy at work.”

Told of the planned protest action at the Supreme Court, where participants were to wear black armbands to bewail the supposed “death of democracy,” Valte said it was “to the contrary” because “we see the system of checks and balances, as enshrined in our Constitution, at play.”

Corona may not seek redress before the Supreme Court should he disagree with any of the decisions made by the Senate impeachment court, according to Edwin Lacierda, Mr. Aquino’s spokesperson and a professor of constitutional law.

“That is very clear in the Constitution and in the deliberation of the Constitutional Commission,” Lacierda said in a phone interview.

Can’t go to SC

He added: “Our contention is the Supreme Court cannot second-guess the decisions of the Senate sitting as an impeachment court.

“The Senate sitting as impeachment court is an expression of the sovereign will of the people that has been lodged in and delegated exclusively by the Constitution to the Senate.”

Corona lawyer Esguerra had earlier said that the defense team would go to the Supreme Court if the Senate impeachment court decided against its motion for a pretrial conference.

Valte said Malacañang would be monitoring the impeachment process, but added that the work of the executive branch would continue.

“Of course, the President did say that we will be monitoring [the proceedings] in the impeachment trial. But on the side of the executive branch, it’s business as usual,” she said.