Defense asks Senator Angara to inhibit from Corona impeachment trial

By ROUCHELLE DINGLASAN and KIMBERLY JANE TAN, GMA News

Published May 7, 2012 6:02pm

The lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona on Monday filed a motion seeking to inhibit Senator Edgardo Angara from the impeachment trial due to the senator-judge's familial and political interests. “Ngayong araw po ay nagfile kami ng motion to inhibit para kay Senator-judge Angara,” defense lawyer Rico Paolo Quicho told reporters.

“The mere participation of Rep. Sonny Angara in any aspect of these proceedings places Senator-judge Angara in a position of potential conflict. What seems to be missed in all this is that Rep. Sonny Angara is the son and direct descendant of Senator-judge Angara,” the 7-page motion read.

The younger Angara is one of the spokespersons for the prosecution.

“Without doubt, the grounds for the inhibition of Senator-judge Angara are clear and unequivocal,” read the motion signed by former Supreme Court Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas, and defense lawyers Jose Roy III, Dennis Manalo, and Noel Lazaro. Won't inhibit On the same day the motion was filed, Angara said he was not going to inhibit from the proceedings.

"I won't inhibit myself because it's my constitutional duty. It's a duty imposed on us not because we like it but because the Constitution says that senators be the judges in case of impeachment," Angara told reporters in a chance interview.

On his son's role in the impeachment proceedings, Angara said: "I had nothing to do with the appointment of my son as a spokesperson, even as a prosecutor."

Likewise, Angara explained that conflict of interest only happens when the judge is related within six degrees to a party litigant.

"Sonny is not a party litigant nor is he going to be substantially benefited by whatever is the outcome of the impeachment," he said. "[So] there's no such conflict of interest. The grounds that they are citing I've seen it already are without basis."

Political favors? In seeking Angara's inhibition, the defense panel said the recent political developments showed the senator-judge’s “partiality in favor of the Liberal Party and President Benigno C. Aquino.”

The motion cited the approval of the three infrastructure projects in the senators’s hometown, Aurora, “seemed timed to coincide with the voting period of the impeachment trial of CJ Corona and in preparation for the forthcoming 2013 national elections.”

As listed in the March 2012 National economic Development Authority Report, the motion enumerated the projects as:

P1.66 billion Baler-Casiguran Road Improvement Project
P798.56 million Umiray Bridge Construction Project
P1.81 billion Samar Pacific Coastal Road Project in Visayas

“The scale and timing of these projects appear more as political favors and inducements, rather than just honest-to-goodness responses to development concerns,” the defense panel claimed.

The Corona Lawyers also cited the younger Angara's possible slot under the LP senatorial lineup as a factor for the elder Angara to lean toward the prosecution’s side.

Early this month, the Palace said that President Aquino’s purported endorsement of the young Angara in Oriental Mindoro should not be tagged as premature campaigning.

“Needles to say, if he (Senator-judge Angara) should vote to convict CJ Corona, the actuations of the good senator-judge will be suspect for probably being grounded in consideration other than law and evidence,” the defense said. “The only acceptable vote that Senator-judge Angara may render… is a vote of acquittal.” Drilon, too

In January, the defense panel had asked Senator Franklin Drilon to inhibit from the impeachment proceedings for supposedly being an "ally" of the prosecution panel.

Drilon, however, did not inhibit from the trial, describing the inhibition call as "baseless."

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, presiding officer of the impeachment court, had said that inhibition depends on the senator-judge in question. — RSJ, GMA News

Tags: edgardoangara, coronaimpeachment,