Defense asks to be informed of sequence of impeachment articles to tackle

MANILA, Philippines—The team defending Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona on Wednesday urged the prosecution to inform the senator judges of the sequence of articles of impeachment to be tackled.

Speaking to reporters, defense panel spokesperson Karen Jimeno said, “We have a right to know what order they (prosecution) are to follow.”

Lawyer Tranquil Salvador III, another spokesperson for the defense team, said that he personally preferred that the “correct” sequence of the articles of impeachment be followed. He said that they had yet to receive word from the prosecution about the article they had chosen to present during the third day of the impeachment proceedings.

He added that the senator judges should at least be informed of the sequence of the articles to be discussed so they can be better prepared for the trial.

Jimeno asked the prosecution to “be reasonable” in terms of rearranging the sequence of articles to be discussed and inform the senators and the defense team which articles would be discussed.

She said that although their panel has prepared for all articles, “dapat alam kung alin ang uunahin… kahit handa para sa lahat (ng articles), mahirap kapag hindi alam kung aling article ang pag-uusapan (we should know what article will be tackled..; it’s cumbersome if we do not know which article will be tackled).”