Santiago scolds prosecutors again over dwindling witnesses

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago

“What on earth were you thinking?”

An incredulous Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago asked the question on Monday as she scolded the prosecutors yet again after they announced that they would only present around 15 witnesses—not 100 as they previously proclaimed—in their effort to oust Chief Justice Renato Corona.

“Why say 100? What on earth was going through your mind? Were you trying to mislead the court? Were you trying to conduct trial by publicity?” the senator angrily asked as the impeachment trial entered its seventh week.

Under questioning by Senator Francis Escudero, a House prosecutor, Representative Neri Colmenares, admitted that his camp would no longer be able to present around 100 witness.

Colmenares claimed that the Corona camp had discouraged many witnesses from coming forward.

“This case is really difficult because of its nature,” he told the court in Filipino.

“Most of the witnesses are really very reluctant to testify, perhaps because you are up against the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that’s why it’s not that easy to get willing and cooperative witnesses.”

Senator Joker Arroyo, taking the floor, said that he was “amazed by the statement of the prosecution.”

“But you have the backing of no less than the President of the Republic of the Philippines!” he told Colmenares. “How can you say that? You should have no problem getting witnesses.”

President Benigno Aquino III has been actively campaigning for the removal of Corona, alleging that the Chief Justice was an obstacle to his reform agenda.

Just last week, the President summarized the prosecution’s case against Corona in a school gathering and called for his conviction.

Santiago on Monday blasted a TV survey asking whether Corona should remain in office. She noted that the defense was yet to argue its case before the impeachment court.

Escudero noted that for the second article of impeachment (Corona’s alleged failure to publicly declare his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth), the prosecution had listed 13 witnesses but presented only six.

For Article 3 (alleged flip-flopping decisions), the senator said the listed witnesses were 26 but only one took the witness stand.

For Article 7 (temporary restraining order allegedly favoring former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), the prosecution was to present 24 witnesses but only one had so far appeared.

Colmenares said the prosecution would present “eight to nine” witnesses for Article 7, which is the current subject of the trial.

Escudero said the disparity in the prosecution’s previously announced number of witnesses and the actual number in the trial put senators in a “compromising situation.”

“We would all look blind outside if it turns out that there are only a few witnesses in reality,” the senator said in Filipino.

Colmenares said the prosecution had submitted its list of witnesses in compliance with Santiago’s motion. He said the list contained the number of witnesses his camp “thought were needed.”

Santiago asked: “Were you playing games with us?”

The senator did not stop at the prosecution list. She criticized prosecutors for using the term “excessive entanglement” in their article of impeachment alleging the Corona-Arroyo connection.

She said it was “term of art in constitutional law that is applied in cases involving the separation of Church and State.”

“Pasiklab kayo nang pasiklab… pag may term of art, wag mong gamitin yan kung di ka sigurado kung ano meaning nyan!” she said. Translated, she said the prosecution kept on bragging; of there’s a term of art, don’t use it unless you are sure of its meaning.

Santiago also cried foul over alleged “personal attacks” against senator-judges “whether we perceived to be in favor of the prosecution or of the defense.”

“What is this, trial by publicity? Are you hoping that you can threaten or intimidate the impeachment court into a decision in conformity with your own particular view as a lawyer, which I must say, is sometimes bizarre.”

She added: “It’s not only peculiar, but it is itself bizarre, so byzantine that I cannot figure out what it is that you are trying to do.”

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda on Monday said that the prosecution’s evidence in Article 2 was enough to convict Corona. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño