Senate denies defense bid to dismiss 5 articles vs Corona

MANILA, Philippines–The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, junked on Monday a motion by the defense team to formally dismiss the five articles of impeachment that were already dropped by the prosecution team.

“Regarding the motion of the defense to formally dismiss Articles 1, 4, 5,6 and 8 of the Articles of Impeachment, the impeachment court in a caucus decided not to act, not to entertain and act on the motion to dismiss with the clear understanding however, that no evidence form both prosecution and defense panels will be received by the impeachemnt court on Articles 1, 4, 5, 6 an d 8,” Senate president and presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile said when the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona resumed a little past 2:00 in the afternoon.

“And furthermore that the members of the impeachment court will not render any vote on article 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8 and that no verdict of the impeachment will be rendered on Articles 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8,” Enrile said.

The complainants listed eight charges in the impeachment complaint against Corona but the prosecution team decided to present evidence only for Article 2 (Corona’s alleged failure to disclose to public his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth), Article 3 (Corona’s alleged lack of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence) and Article 7 (Corona’s alleged partiality in granting a temporary restraining order on the government’s watchlist order against former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo).

After presenting their evidence for the three articles , the prosecution decided to rest its case and dropped the five other charges.

But Corona’s lawyers filed a motion to seek for a formal dismissal of the dropped charges for fear that the same charges would be used against the Chief Justice after the one year ban period for filing impeachment cases against the same official.