Prosecution Drops 5 Impeach Articles

MANILA, Philippines — The prosecution panel decided to drop Articles 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8 of the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Renato C. Corona as it formally ended its presentation of evidence Tuesday.
Rep. Neil Tupas Jr., head of the House prosecutors, told the impeachment court that the prosecution panel was ending the presentation of evidence although it had earlier sent an official invitation to Supreme Court (SC) Justice Ma. Lourdes P. Sereno to appear and testify at the trial. Tupas said the prosecution panel believes it has presented a strong case against the Chief Justice and will stand or fall on Articles 2, 3 and 7.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile immediately ordered Tupas to submit a formal motion dropping and withdrawing Articles 1, 4,5, 6, and 8 without further reception of evidence.
Corona’s lawyers welcomed the move of the House prosecution panel to rest their case against the chief magistrate.
Ramon Esguerra, former Justice undersecretary and a lawyer of the defense, said the defense panel is ready to defend the Chief Justice and rebut the allegations hurled against him.
“The defense is ready from Day 1 as shown by what Chief Justice stated in his answer to the complaint,” Esguerra said.
“We have witnesses for all the articles (Articles 2, 3, and 7). We are likely to present evidence even on the other five (5) articles,” added Esguerra.
In a letter signed by Bayan Muna Party-List Rep. Neri Colmenares, the House prosecution panel wanted Sereno to appear and testify on March 1 in connection with her dissenting opinion on the SC’s Nov. 15, 2011 resolution that granted the temporary restraining order (TRO) sought by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo against the watch list order (WLO) issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
However, a resolution issued by the SC on Feb. 14, 2012 disallows any High Court official or employee from appearing before the trial unless given a waiver.
“If we are going to follow the SC resolution on February 14, 2012, it is clearly stated that the judicial privilege belongs to the court, so therefore, it is the court that can waive the privilege,” said SC Spokesman and Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez.
“If there should be a waiver, the waiver should come from the court and that waiver can only be issued if the issue is brought before the court,” he said.
The letter of invitation to appear before the trial was delivered personally by lawyer Ma. Cristina Yambot, one of the private prosecutors in the impeachment trial, to the office of Justice Sereno.
It stated: “Your testimony will help the impeachment court in arriving at a conclusion on the issues above-mentioned in relation to the charges that the Chief Justice acted with partiality and bias in the issuance of the TRO in favor of former President Arroyo in the consolidated case of ‘Gloria and Miguel Arroyo vs. De Lima’.”
Citing Sereno’s dissenting opinion, De Lima had earlier testified before the impeachment court and pointed out alleged “infirmities” and “irregularities” in the issuance of the TRO in favor of Mrs. Arroyo.
Asked whether or not Sereno would accept the invitation to appear as witness, Marquez said: “We will leave that to Justice Sereno. I have not spoken to Justice Sereno. I do not know her thoughts on that.”
“If and when she (Justice Sereno) attends, she will have her reasons, and so we will leave it up to her,” he said.
Asked if there would be a violation of the February 14, 2012 resolution should Justice Sereno present herself as a witness before the impeachment court, Marquez said: “If there is a clear violation, then that court official will be answerable to the court.”
In Malacañang, President Benigno S. Aquino III was counting on other court employees to testify in the impeachment trial.
Aquino said earlier Tuesday court employees, unlike SC justices, could be invited to the trial of Corona without violating the principle of co-equal branches of government.
Aquino declined to comment on whether Sereno should defy the Supreme Court’s internal rules and testify in the trial of Corona. “I don’t want to comment on that. If she testifies, they will say I ordered her to do so. There is no correct answer to that question right now,” he said.
The Senate impeachment court recently ruled it would not subpoena Sereno to appear as a prosecution witness to avoid a collision course with the judiciary, a co-equal branch of government.
But Enrile said he still wants to hear Sereno’s testimony.
Enrile, in an interview, said the impeachment body will treat Sereno with deference if she agrees to be a witness to the impeachment trial.
When asked if Sereno’s dissenting opinion would pass as an evidence for the prosecution, Enrile said it will be only to the extent of what Sereno only has personal knowledge of.
“Only to the extent of kung ano yung alam ni Justice Sereno dun. Yung actual knowledge niya. We will take the dissenting opinion at face value. The defense can introduce evidence that the dissenting opinion is not true,” he said.
But Enrile said the Senate will not interfere with the Supreme Court if it invokes its judicial privilege even when Justice Sereno agrees to testify.
The prosecution believes Sereno can shed light on the perceived partiality of Corona towards Arroyo in past SC decisions, particularly the issuance of the TRO on DOJ’s order to prevent her from traveling abroad.
During her time at the witness stand, De Lima cited Sereno’s opinion that the SC issued the TRO despite the failure of Mrs. Arroyo to comply with the conditions stipulated in the restraining order.
Meanwhile, Corona’s defense team has filed a motion to expunge from court records all details on the bank accounts that were submitted by Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank) officials at the impeachment trial.
Former Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas said they filed the motion to suppress illegally obtained evidence, referring to “all evidence thus far offered, received, marked and proposed in relation to the subpoena it issued last February 6 and 9 addressed to Annabelle Tiongson, PS Bank Katipunan branch manager.”
“This motion is founded on the constitutional guarantee against unlawful searches and seizure, and the protection for the individual who has already suffered an unlawful search which is found in the exclusionary rule,” the defense panel stated in their 33-page motion to suppress, exclude and expunge the evidence from the record.
Tiongson had earlier been called to testify before the court on Article 2 of the impeachment complaint which accuses Corona for “betrayal of public trust” for failing to disclose to the public his statement of assets and liabilities and net worth (SALN).
Corona’s lawyers argued that the testimonies of the representatives of PSBank will confirm that the documents submitted by the prosecution are not copies of the documents of the bank.
“Indeed, in the course of the trial, it became clear that the documents were spurious. Neither Congressman (Reynaldo) Umali nor (Jorge) Banal could provide a credible source or origin of the document,” they said.
Earlier, Umali (2nd District, Oriental Mindoro) told the court “a small lady” offered to him pieces of evidences which pertains to Corona’s account deposits with PS Bank which also included dollar accounts.
Banal (3rd District, Quezon City), on the other hand, said he came across an envelope which he found in his garage which purportedly contains the same alleged copies of Corona’s bank records.
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/352777/prosecution-drops-5-impeach-articles

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