Prosecution backs marathon impeachment hearings

MANILA, Philippines - House prosecutors in Chief Justice Renato Corona’s Senate impeachment trial supported yesterday the proposal of presiding judge Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile for marathon impeachment hearings starting this week.         

“We support Senate President Enrile’s plan because this will greatly speed up the trial,” Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, a prosecution spokesman, said.         

He said the conduct of extended hearings would ensure that the trial will be finished by the end of the month and a verdict handed down before Congress adjourns sine die on June 7.         

Angara said the trial could be expedited if the defense presents Corona and his wife as witnesses who could directly answer the impeachment charges.         

He noted that since Corona’s lawyers started presenting his defense, they and their witnesses tried to indirectly respond to the charges.         

“For instance, instead of presenting Mrs. Cristina Corona, they offered witnesses who testified that Mrs. Corona had complaints with the Ayala Avenue, Makati condo unit she and her husband acquired in 2004, that she did not accept the unit until August 2009 though they already paid for it in full in late 2004,” he said.         

However, he pointed out that Corona’s lawyers and their witnesses failed to explain why the Chief Justice did not declare the condo unit in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) from 2004 to 2009.         

Corona included it in his SALN only in 2010, along with two other condo units also previously undeclared, he added.         

Angara said the defense also tried to show that Mrs. Corona’s family corporation, Basa-Guidote Enterprises, received a payment of more than P34 million from the Manila city government as testified to by former mayor Lito Atienza.         

But they failed to link the money to the more than P31 million in deposits the Chief Justice had in three accounts with Philippine Savings Bank and Bank of the Philippine Islands as of end 2010, which he did not declare in his SALN that year, he said.         

“The defense presentation is full of holes. It does not connect the dots,” he said.         

Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, a member of the prosecution panel, said Corona’s lawyers should support Enrile’s proposal for marathon hearings.         

“They must abandon their plan to present a long list of irrelevant and immaterial witnesses when Corona is the only witness who matters. The Chief Justice must live up to the tenets requiring speedy trial. This has been dragging for a long time due to the defense’s delaying tactics and it’s good to finish this trial soonest,” he said. – With Delon Porcalla, Alexis Romero