De Lima testifies anew in Corona trial

MANILA, Philippines — The impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona resumed on Thursday with the defense team expected to continue its cross examination of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

De Lima first appeared Wednesday before the Senate, sitting as an impeachment courtn where she accused Corona of allegedly trying to help former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo escape the country in 2011.

She noted the Supreme Court’s order giving the government only three days, instead of 10 days, to respond to its temporary retraining order issued on Nov. 15, 2011 on the watchlist order against Arroyo.

Corona was one of the justices who voted in favor of stopping the government’s watchlist order.

But De Lima defied the TRO and prevented Arroyo, who is facing electoral sabotage case and other criminal cases, from leaving the country supposedly to seek medical treatment.

The Justice Secretary is the first witness presented by the prosecution team for Article VII of the impeachment complaint which states Corona’s alleged “Partiality in granting a temporary restraining order in favor of Mrs. Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo in order to give them an opportunity to escape prosecution and to frustrate the ends of justice, and in distorting the Supreme Court decision on the effectivity if the TRO in view of a clear failure to comply with the conditions of the Supreme Court’s own TRO.”