Prosecutors on Corona’s reply: Look who’s talking

“Look who’s talking.”

 

This was how the House prosecution panel reacted to Chief Justice Renato Corona’s plea for the “outright dismissal” of the impeachment case filed against him for supposedly being rushed and for failing to meet the requirements of the Constitution.

 

Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo, the panel’s spokesperson, said it was “ironic” for Corona to criticize the speed by which the House approved the impeachment case against him, since the chief justice himself has allegedly issued rushed and questionable rulings.

 

“It is ironic that the chief justice accuses us of rushing our decision when in fact it is he who is accused in the impeachment complaint of having rushed, not just once, but five times the issuance of temporary restraining orders (TROs) without the benefit of hearing the side of the other affected party,” Quimbo said at a press briefing Tuesday.

 

He cited as example the SC’s decision last November 15 granting former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s request for a TRO halting the implementation of a watch list order against her, just a week after her camp filed a petition for the TRO. Mrs. Arroyo attempted to leave the country upon issuance of the TRO, but was barred and detained days after due to a poll sabotage charge. 

 

A total of 188 political allies of President Benigno Aquino III at the House of Representatives agreed to swiftly impeach Corona last December 12 for alleged betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution and graft and corruption. Aquino has never fully recognized the legitimacy of Corona, who was appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Chief Justice a few weeks before she stepped down from office last year, barely a week after the elections where Aquino had emerged as the clear winner. On Monday, the chief magistrate submitted his reply to the complaint, where he asked the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, to dismiss the case against him citing constitutional infirmities and bias against him.  Constitutional power  

But Quimbo maintained that the House only exercised its constitutional power to hold top officials accountable for their actions when the chamber decided to impeach Corona.

 

“The impeachment complaint was really just the crystallization or the end product of a long simmering debate that had been on-going among the members of congress in the various committees at the House of Representatives,” he said.

 

Corona’s impeachment trial at the Senate is expected to formally start mid-January next year. The Philippine Constitution requires the vote of two-thirds of all the senators—or 16 of the 23 current senators—to convict the chief justice and remove him from his post.

 

Weak argument?

 

Quimbo likewise pointed out that Corona’s failure to sign his reply to the impeachment complaint further weakens the arguments in the document.

 

“Nakapagtataka kung bakit di nila [Corona’s defense panel] vinerify… I don’t know what their strategy is, but it’s something that weakens the accountability of the document,” he said.

 

Corona’s official reply to the impeachment case submitted to the Senate did not bear his signature. Only the six members of his defense panel signed the document.

 

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares, a member of the House prosecution team, meanwhile said  the panel is already preparing its reply to Corona’s answer to the impeachment complaint.

 

“The answer is weak and failed to argue against the jurisdiction of the Senate. We will argue that the trial should proceed because the Senate has jurisdiction,” he said in a separate text message.

 

Colmenares added that the prosecution team will also debunk Corona’s argument that he cannot be impeached based on decisions made by the 15-member high court.

 

“The fact that other justices may also be partial does not save an accused from being convicted for partiality and subservience to a favored party,” he said.

 

One of the articles in Corona’s impeachment case accuses the chief justice of partiality towards Mrs. Arroyo, who appointed him to the post weeks before she stepped down of office in May 2010. Corona is believed to be closely associated with Mrs. Arroyo, now under hospital arrest on charges of electoral sabotage.   

 

Corona once served as Mrs. Arroyo's spokesman and chief of staff when the latter was still vice president. When Mrs. Arroyo was catapulted to the presidency in 2001, Corona then assumed various posts — presidential chief of staff, presidential spokesperson, and acting executive secretary.  — RSJ, GMA News